Credit Suisse plans global expansion

by Richard Kilner

Story link: Credit Suisse plans global expansion

Yesterday the Credit Suisse Group announced its private banking arm would embark upon a global expansion plan, defying the current trend of the financial services sector.

Other businesses in the financial sector have seen writedowns and are shedding staff, whereas Credit Suisse intends to increase the number of bankers dedicated to wealthy clients to 1,000 by 2010.

Credit Suisse has said it believes it can achieve a 6% year on year growth in the net new assets of its wealth management division.

The global credit crunch has had little impact upon wealth managers, who invest money on behalf of wealthy clients.

The firm’s Swiss rival bank, UBS AG, has suffered a monumental writedown of $14.5bn.

Other big names, such as Citigroup, have also experienced enormous losses and been forced to bolster equity bases through investment, generally from overseas.

By contrast, Credit Suisse has been barely affected by the global credit crunch.

The firm’s plans for growth aims at areas around the world, including the US, Europe, India, Japan, Latin America and the Middle East.

In Japan the firm wants to create an onshore operation this year, as well as entering the onshore markets of both Mexico and Brazil.