Geneva-based Banque Heritage is among the latest of a string of small Swiss private banks to expand its presence abroad as a way of offsetting the burden of increased regulation at home, and to compensate for the erosion of Switzerland's status as an offshore banking center.

The family-controlled private bank said Monday that the strategy is paying off, as it won 2 billion Swiss francs ($1.98 billion) in net new assets this year, mainly from small institutions and wealthy private individuals in the Middle East and Asia. It opened an office in Singapore this summer and is hiring for a branch on Zurich's tony Bahnhofstrasse.