Credit Suisse's De Ferrari leaves a job unfinished, with the Australian firm posting an overall net loss and the Australian wealth management division seeing profit drop.

The Australian wealth management division reported profit dropped by a quarter to roughly $34 million US dollars as the numerous scandals over the past few years continued to take their toll.

In 2018, it was found out for charging clients fees for services that it wasn't providing and then lying about that to regulators. That subsequently led to the exit of many top executives and the loss of some policyholders. The asset bleed spurred AMP to parachute in Francesco De Ferrari, then Credit Suisse's top banker in Asia, to lead a turnaround.

He subsequently left in 2021 and was recently appointed as the head of Credit Suisse newly-merged global wealth management business, as finews recently reported. 

The advice segment’s client numbers fell in 2021. In addition, the master trust segment’s profit fell on pricing changes under its simplification strategy, which saw a transition to three products. Efforts to retain clients in the corporate superannuation business resulted in «a significant reduction in mandate losses» for the year, AMP said.

Repeatedly Hit by Scandal

Back then, the revelations of misconduct subsequently led to a restructuring plan in 2019 that involved large changes to the wealth management business in Australia. It cut the number of advisors and slashed commission payments.

De Ferrari also had to tap AMP's shareholders, and sold the life insurance unit. However, AMP's initially favorable view of him was tempered by several missteps, including the handling of a sexual harassment case as well as poor workplace conduct by a long-standing associate whom De Ferrari had poached from Credit Suisse.

In the third quarter of this year, AMP brought in former ANZ banker Alexis George to take over from De Ferrari.

Spinning off AMP Capital

The Australian company is planning to spin-off the asset management business AMP Capital into a separate company to be renamed Collimate Capital.

All in all, this makes it an eventful day on the news front for De Ferrari, not least given that Credit Suisse earnings will be out this afternoon.