Credit Suisse has narrowed its search for a head of global private banking, finews.asia has learned. The favored candidate is a veteran of the Swiss bank, due to return to the fold after a three-year stint elsewhere.
The Zurich-based bank’s board has approved a plan to fold several of its wealth management into a single one, three people familiar with the matter told finews.asia on Monday. Credit Suisse is due to disclose the move on Thursday as part of a wider overhaul, they said.
Francesco De Ferrari (pictured below) is tipped to run the unit, which would manage as much as 853 billion Swiss francs ($931 billion) by combining activities with the wealthy in Switzerland, in the wider Asian region, and internationally into a global business, these people said. De Ferrari oversaw Credit Suisse’s wealth activities in Asia until 2018.
CEO As Kingmaker
Credit Suisse CEO Thomas Gottstein had a strong say-so in the appointment and backed the Swiss-Italian dual citizen, according to two of the people. De Ferrari wasn't immediately available for comment; a Credit Suisse spokesman declined to comment.
De Ferrari, who most recently ran ailing Australian wealth manager AMP, beat another outside candidate that Credit Suisse's board had considered, two of the people said. This person was Peter Charrington, Citigroup's former global private banking head, one of the people said. Charrington, who is British, now advises King & Spalding, a U.S. law firm that is making a foray with the ultra-wealthy.
Executive Sidelined
The appointment of De Ferrari would displace Philipp Wehle, who currently runs the largest chunk of Credit Suisse’s wealth management activities – its international unit. Though Wehle, a German executive who took the role just two years ago, is expected to remain with the Swiss bank, his precise role isn't clear.
The private bank represents one puzzle piece in a review of Credit Suisse’s wider strategy that Chairman António Horta Osório is due to present on Thursday, with third-quarter results. The unit is at the center of a maelstrom around a $10.1 billion Greensill fund implosion in March. The supply chain funds were primarily sold to wealthy private clients of Credit Suisse.
Reporting by Katharina Bart and Claude Baumann
