Winners rationale

Hong Kong is home to some of Asia’s oldest wealth and was a regional ‘first mover’ in terms of global investing (especially in equities and real estate). As such, Hong Kong’s UHNWIs and HNWIs are among Asia’s most over-banked across investment, commercial and private banking services, making it difficult for any relative newcomer to earn significant wallet and mind-share.

Credit Suisse is certainly no newcomer to Hong Kong, having maintained a presence in the city for nearly 50 years and today boasting relationships with over half of Hong Kong’s Forbes List billionaires. But the private bank, powered by its industry-leading integrated platform in Asia, has in recent years set about increasing the quality and productivity of these relationships, and its overall penetration of the city’s entrepreneurial UHNWIs, with spectacular results. In 2017, Credit Suisse’s Hong Kong and the overall Greater China private banking business continued to make significant contribution to the regional franchise.

In 2017, net new money from Hong Kong clients increased by a triple-digit percentage with the majority coming from existing clients – clear evidence that the bank’s efforts to further ‘activate’ its current relationships are paying off. Moreover, revenues continue to grow at a strong double-digit percentage, not only by successfully riding the global rally but in a well-diversified fashion across transactional, recurring and interest income. And the year was punctuated by a raft of customised financing solutions that showcase Credit Suisse’s UHNW capabilities, including the delivery of a massive share-backed lending structure for a client with a HKSE-listed company; a stellar injection into flow investments, especially in fund solutions; and the opening of the single largest discretionary mandate in Asia for Credit Suisse, where the bank managed to win the majority of client assets from a pool of other industry majors.

Headline growth and achievements of this calibre are only possible when the business, and critically, its people are unified around a common cause. Indeed, bankers at Credit Suisse are clear beneficiaries of the bank’s integrated approach in APAC, which promotes greater autonomy and agility at the regional level, thereby enabling the private bank to respond quickly to client demands. But Credit Suisse’s success in 2017, in Hong Kong is also testament to the astute and systematic way the bank’s leadership has pursued greater efficiency and productivity in its existing client relationships.

It is no exaggeration that in 2017, Credit Suisse firmly established itself as private banking leader in Hong Kong, grabbing market share from its competitors and further increasing mindshare among the city’s sophisticated UHNW entrepreneurs, in the process, earning the title of Asian Private Banker’s Best Private Bank – Hong Kong for 2017.