Swiss bank Credit Suisse is bolstering its wealth management arm with outside financial technology aimed squarely at Chinese clients.
Credit Suisse is extending a partnership with Canopy, the Swiss bank said in a media statement on Tuesday. Now, clients in Hong Kong will also be able to access the Singapore-based fintech's account aggregation platform.
The Zurich-bank is releasing Canopy's technology in both traditional and simplified Chinese for the Hong Kong market – a nod to Credit Suisse's biggest market in Asia.
Profitability Doubled
«The platform is one of the key enablers of our business growth in greater China,» said Francois Monnet, Credit Suisse's head in Hong Kong. The Swiss bank's wealth activities in China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan hiked revenue by more than 20 percent last year and doubled profitability, he said at a media briefing in Hong Kong.
Specifically, wealthy clients can choose to share aggregated data with a Credit Suisse private banker, for a 5,000 Swiss franc ($5,064) annual fee. Roughly one-third of the Swiss bank's clients have elected to do so, which effectively means they are sharing aggregated data across all their accounts held with competing private banks.
Partnership Through Equity Stake
Canopy hasn't locked itself into working exclusively with Credit Suisse, and can offer its platform technology to another private bank in future. The Swiss bank and the Singapore fintech clinched a partnership last year for an equity stake – Credit Suisse’s first investment into a fintech company in Asia Pacific.
