Credit Suisse disbands China onshore wealth unit
Credit Suisse has dismissed its entire wealth management team in China, scrapping its ambition to become one of the biggest foreign money managers in the country as UBS decided not to take on the staff, people familiar with the matter said.
Those let go included at least 20 relationship managers and investment consultants as well as Wang Jing, the chief executive officer of Credit Suisse’s securities venture, the people said, asking not to be identified because the matter isn’t public. Some support roles were also affected, they said, without being specific on numbers. The division at one point had about 40 staff, one of the people said.
+ Where did it all go wrong for Credit Suisse?
Spokespeople at UBS and Credit Suisse declined to comment.
The dismissals come as Credit Suisse is trying to find a buyer for its securities business in China, which now consists of investment banking and brokerage operations after the wealth unit closed. UBS, which has yet to merge Credit Suisse’s entities in China, needs to sell the securities venture because it already controls one in the country and can’t hold two licenses for the same business.
Incompatible model
The job reductions at the wealth unit started in October as UBS felt Credit Suisse’s strategy of selling wealth products through bank branches was incompatible with its current model, one of the people said.
Wang was hired more than three years ago from China Merchants Bank to develop Credit Suisse’s wealth footprint on the mainland, and was made CEO of the securities business last year after a reshuffle and an exodus of senior management.
+ Read more: How to fuse to giant banks
Credit Suisse’s push to build a wealth management business in China started to fall apart after it delayed the launch of its locally incorporated bank last year, the second postponement since the project was conceived in 2020. The firm had planned to build a branch network to distribute wealth products and fuel its money management business, joining other Wall Street firms that have poured billions into China. As recently as 2021, Credit Suisse had plans to triple its headcount in China within three years.
China’s economic woes
The local bank project was delayed by a sluggish licensing process and was questioned by some senior Credit Suisse executives as China’s economy was reeling from Covid lockdowns and a crackdown on private enterprise, people familiar have said.
Wang, the former head of private banking at China Merchants Bank, was seen as a key hire by former Asia CEO Helman Sitohang. She had helped build the Shenzhen-based lender into the nation’s biggest manager for high net worth clients during her more than two decades stint.
Credit Suisse won approval in 2020 to take full control of a securities venture it had run with Founder Securities since 2008. The firm last year agreed to buy the remaining 49% stake from Founder for $160 million. The deal was scrapped after UBS acquired Credit Suisse in a rescue brokered by Swiss authorities, people familiar said.
Limited real estate exposure
UBS CEO Sergio Ermotti reiterated the firm’s commitment to China during a September visit to Beijing, while acknowledging the geopolitical situation has changed. UBS has “very limited” direct exposure to China real estate since the bank is mainly in the country to help people manage their wealth, he said in an interview.
+ Read why a monster UBS bank scares Switzerland
Wall Street firms have seen their business slow in China amid a sluggish economy and dearth of deals. UBS had seen strong growth, with mainland China revenue more than doubling to almost $1 billion in 2021 from 2019, Bloomberg reported last year. The bank employed about 1,400 people in China as of January.
Across Asia, UBS is cutting hundreds of wealth-management jobs after completing the Credit Suisse takeover, Bloomberg News reported in September. The lender was set to eliminate roles that included relationship managers in Hong Kong and Singapore, the majority within Credit Suisse teams, the people said.
Still, the merger gives UBS the largest wealth team in Asia, with assets that top rivals including HSBC. Global wealth chief Iqbal Khan is betting Asia will continue to generate lucrative fees from rich clients.
©2023 Bloomberg L.P.
This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. You can find them here.
If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.
In compliance with the JTI standards
More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.