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At a time when most Swiss private banks are shrinking from serving wealthy Americans because of the U.S.'s hot pursuit of alleged tax evaders, Vontobel Holding AG (VONN.EB) said Wednesday it expects a new unit for U.S. clients to turn a profit in two to three years.

The Zurich-based bank launched Vontobel Swiss Wealth Advisors several months ago, hiring roughly eight client advisors from far larger rivals UBS AG (UBS) and Credit Suisse Group (CS), and has already booked initial inflows, Vontobel Chief Executive Herbert Scheidt told Dow Jones Newswires in an interview.

Hoping to a benefit from rivals like Bank Sarasin & Cie AG (BSAN.EB) and Julius Baer Group AG (BAER.VX) exiting the business of U.S. clients before or shortly after the Internal Revenue Service began its pursuit of UBS AG (UBS), Vontobel launched the unit last fall, registering with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

"Offshore banking is morphing into a more contemporary version of cross-border and onshore financial services with far higher regulatory requirements, and banks must know the individualities and specifics of each country they operate in, inside and out," CEO Scheidt said Wednesday after the bank reported a 6% rise in full-year net profit.

He declined to disclose how much of the CHF1.2 billion of the firm's private banking net new money last year can be attributed to the U.S. unit, which is being built up at a location separate from Vontobel's broader money-management activities, underscoring the tightrope Swiss banks must walk in dealing with U.S. clients as scrutiny of cross-border business intensifies.

"I don't even have a key [to their office]," Scheidt says.

The U.S. clinched a big win against Swiss banking in general through its pursuit of Swiss giant UBS, which ultimately admitted to aiding U.S. clients hide assets through hidden Swiss offshore accounts. UBS paid $780 million to settle a criminal suit and agreed to hand over more than 4,000 sets of client data in a separate civil suit brought by the IRS.

The IRS, which estimates the U.S.'s lost tax revenue at $100 billion, has gathered money trails from around the world after more than 15,000 Americans came clean on their foreign accounts. While pursuing UBS, the IRS also set up disclosure programs which dangled incentives to taxpayers, such as promising to go easier on them for coming forward voluntarily.

The case rocked Swiss banks, which quickly began re-examining their business with U.S. clients. Some of them, including privately-held Pictet of Geneva, still cater to U.S. clients in a similar SEC-regulated set-up as Vontobel does.

Bucking the trend, Vontobel's Scheidt--set to step down as CEO and become chairman of the bank in May--says he could see doubling the size of the unit from currently 15 employees, depending on how its business develops.

However, the bank must prove it can consistently win assets from U.S. clients--and isn't just benefiting now from funds shifting because of the massive scrutiny over accounts held outside the U.S. CEO Scheidt said initial net new assets are a mix of internal and external funds, meaning existing and new clients.

Details on how profitable the business can be are also sketchy, but anecdotal evidence suggests it will far below the more lucrative offshore Swiss banking business.

"It's a good move for Vontobel because it diversifies their private bank, but I don't think it can match the offshore business because it carries high costs and requires intense attention to regulation," Bank Sarasin analyst Rainer Skierka says. He rates the stock at reduce in part due to Vontobel's failure to successfully expand its private bank to offset the dominance of its investment bank.

In expanding the U.S., Vontobel is adopting a sharply contrarian tack to rivals like Sarasin, Julius Baer and VP Bank (VPB.EB), which are pouring money into opening offices in promising new markets such as Asia. Wednesday, Vontobel said it wouldn't consider entering Asia, which it termed risky, until existing onshore initiatives including Germany and Austria can turn a profit.

Vontobel has long been criticized by analysts including Skierka and Helvea's Peter Thorne for relying on the securities unit, which has a flourishing derivatives business, for profits. Earlier Wednesday, Vontobel said it was holding its dividend steady at CHF1.40 a share despite reporting a 6% rise in full-year net profit to CHF147.8 million, largely fuelled by the investment bank.

-By Katharina Bart, Dow Jones Newswires; +41 43 443 8043; katharina.bart@dowjones.com