- She’s the Guarded Widow Inheriting a $90 Billion Banking Empire
Vicky Safra and her children are now owners of Switzerland’s J. Safra Sarasin and Brazil’s Banco Safra.
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Vicky Sarfaty had just turned 17 when she married the man who would become the world’s richest banker.
Five decades later, she’s now the guardian of the vast Safra fortune, built over 180 years across three generations and four continents, making her one of the wealthiest women on the planet.
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Since Joseph Safra’s death in December, control of some of the family’s most prized assets has passed to his 68-year-old widow and her four children, regulatory filings show. They’re listed as the owners of Switzerland’s J. Safra Sarasin and Brazil’s Banco Safra, two banks with about $90 billion in assets, as well as firms linked to the family’s real estate holdings, which include the Gherkin skyscraper in London and 660 Madison Avenue in New York.
She and her children are worth more than $16.2 billion combined, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. A spokesperson for the family declined to comment on their net worth.