The deal boosts Credit Suisse's distribution reach and scale, into regions including Asia, where Allfunds has built out its offering recently.

Credit Suisse has agreed to combine its open-architecture investment platform business with Allfunds, the wealthtech firm, confirming media speculation that such a move was on the cards.

Credit Suisse InvestLab, as the platform is called, will be combined with Allfunds, building a global fund distribution platform with a total of SFr570 billion ($585.9 billion) of assets under administration. It will give the Swiss bank the kind of market penetration that might otherwise have taken years and high resources to build. With Allfunds recently moving into the Asian market, the deal also gives Credit Suisse an important new channel to that region. 

At present the Credit Suisse platform offers distributors access to over 46,000 investment products from more than 170 providers worldwide, with AuA of over SFr140 billion.

Shares in Credit Suisse were down by about 0.7 per cent yesterday afternoon on the SIX exchange in Zurich.

The transaction comprises the transfer of all shares in Credit Suisse InvestLab, including the service agreements, and the related distribution agreements of Credit Suisse to Allfunds Group. As part of this combination, Credit Suisse will become a minority shareholder of up to 18 per cent in the combined business and will be represented on the board. Credit Suisse will use the platform to distribute mutual funds and exchanged-traded funds.

The transaction, which is subject to customary closing conditions, including anti-trust and regulatory approvals, will be implemented in staggered closings. Closing of the transfer of Credit Suisse InvestLab is expected in the third quarter of this year. Subsequent transfer of the related distribution agreements by Credit Suisse is expected to be completed in Q1 2020, Credit Suisse said.

Upon the projected closing in Q3 2019, the transaction will have a limited regulatory capital benefit and is expected to result in a 0.5 per cent return on tangible equity uplift for the financial year 2019 for this transaction alone, all other things being equal, it said. 

Credit Suisse International acted as financial advisor to Credit Suisse in connection with the transaction.