Credit Suisse is looking to further expand its presence onshore in mainland China with the aim of bolstering its wealth management business.
«We are looking at what other license applications we can make in China to expand our onshore private banking interests,» said the bank’s chief financial officer David Mathers in a «Reuters» report.
According to Mathers, Credit Suisse is looking to increase its interest in its securities joint venture to 100 percent «as soon as realistically possible» and expand through licenses to conduct other private banking businesses in the mainland. In 2020, the international wealth unit posted a pre-tax profit of 1.05 billion Swiss francs ($1.17 billion), a 49 percent plunge compared to 2019’s 2.07 billion Swiss francs.
Lending Growth
In an effort to strengthen its international wealth management (IWM) business, the bank will look to add relationship managers and allocate more resources to lending within the division.
«We’re always in the market for quality executives to join the platform. I think clearly we’ll look at making longer-term strategic change there to actually strengthen that business further,» Mathers said.
«But I think I think the most important point is probably going to be an expansion of lending activity as we actually commit more capital to IWM in the course of 2021.»
