Strategy
Credit Suisse To Ramp Up Lending To World's Wealthiest People - Report
Credit Suisse's chief executive Tidjane Thiam is looking to drive the bank's business to focus on wealth management and place less emphasis on investment banking.
Credit
Suisse expects increased lending to the world's
wealthiest individuals to play an integral role in helping its
shift towards a wealth management-oriented business model
succeed.
Approximately a third of the Swiss firm's $29.8 billion of net
new assets taken in last year at its international wealth
management and Asia-Pacific units came through lending, Credit
Suisse's chief financial officer David Mathers reportedly
told Reuters.
“As we mature our wealth management offering outside of
Switzerland, we certainly think that lending has to be a core
part of our offering,” he reportedly told the news service in an
interview. “Therefore, I would expect it to grow...This growth in
our lending and in our net new assets is driving our net interest
income, which has increased by 26 per cent, 16 per cent and 9 per
cent in IWM, APAC and Swiss universal bank respectively.”
Credit Suisse's chief executive, Tidjane Thiam, is looking to
drive the bank's business to focus on wealth management and place
less emphasis on investment banking.
Lending to the super-rich can often pay off, as wealthy clients
reinvest the borrowed cash with the private bank, which can then
count this as new money. Net new money is an important factor in
gauging future earnings in private banking.
Meanwhile, Credit Suisse recently named Christian
Berchem as CEO of its UK private banking business.
Berchem is set to join the Swiss banking giant from Barclays
Wealth, where he most recently acted as head of the firm's
private bank for London. In that role, he helped drive the
group's key client and ultra-high net worth businesses.
He will take the reins from Philip Harris, who has led the
business over the past three years, on 7 June, subject to
regulatory approval. Harris will remain CEO until Berchem takes
over to ensure a seamless handover, Credit Suisse says, adding
that he will then become a senior client advisor within Credit
Suisse's UK private bank.
