Geneva - Julius Baer, one of Switzerland's largest wealth managers, will split into two separate entities, the bank announced Wednesday.

The Julius Baer Group would focus on private banking while other arms would turn into GAM Holding which would handle all asset management. The two fully independent entities are to be listed individually on the Swiss stock exchange.

The transaction was expected to be completed during the third quarter of this year, a statement said, provided there were no shareholder objections.

Julius Baer has seen declining funds in its asset management division and has previously said it wants to focus more on private banking. The GAM division, which ran assets management, was hit by outflows of capital worth over 30 billion dollars.

At the end of 2008, Julius Baer said its total client assets amounted to 338 billion Swiss francs (306 billion dollars), much of which was believed to be in offshore holdings.

The split-up of Zurich-based Julius Baer comes as banks in Switzerland are starting to prepare for the government's plans to relax banking secrecy, as part of an international crackdown on tax evasion.