Credit Suisse said it has officially launched private banking operations in Japan, confirming WealthBriefing’s recent report that the Swiss bank was gearing up to start such a business in the world’s second-largest economy.

The operation will be led by Junya Tani, head of private banking for the Zurich-listed bank, to be based in Tokyo, the bank said in a statement today.

“This marks an important milestone in the implementation of the bank’s international growth strategy and allows Credit Suisse to deliver the full suite of its integrated financial services to its clients in Japan,” Credit Suisse said.

“Japan has an enormous amount of accumulated wealth and the bank sees strong potential in the wealth management market there,” the statement continued. “The launch of its core private banking business in the country underscores Credit Suisse’s ongoing commitment to the important Japan market,” it said.

Credit Suisse has operated investment banking and asset management services in Japan for about 40 years, the bank said.

In April this year, the Swiss bank was reported saying it will target high net worth Japanese clients from May this year. Hedeki Minami, who was formerly vice president of corporate sales at Lehman Brothers, along with Sanae Hirasawa, previously vice president of wealth management at Goldman Sachs, have been appointed to the Tokyo private banking team headed by Mr Tani.

Mr Tani was appointed as head of private banking Japan in July last year, joining Credit Suisse from UBS Securities Japan, where he was country head of wealth management. Prior to UBS, Mr Tani worked for Citigroup, where his last position was head of product development in the private banking division.

Traditionally, Japan has been a difficult market for Western private banks as high net worth investors have tended to use domestic institutions; among the few other players now in the country are SG Private Banking. In 2004, Japanese regulators forced Citigroup to withdraw its private banking operations from the country, a development seen as a blow to the ability of Western banks to make inroads into the market.