Winners rationale

Amid stiff local competition, Credit Suisse’s Singapore business well and truly lived up to its claim to be the region’s ‘trusted entrepreneurs’ bank’ in 2018, reaping the benefits of near-seamless and nimble collaboration between its private and investment bank and a leadership team that is unrivalled in terms of experience and know-how in the city-state.

Banking over 60% of Forbes Singapore billionaires and boasting longstanding relationships with major family offices and foundations, the extent of Credit Suisse’s reach into Singapore’s ultra community is only matched by the scope of its platform and offering, which is finely tuned to meet the complex needs of its clients. And these capabilities were put to good use in 2018 amid a pickup in M&A activity, a cooling property market which prompted clients to invest through the private bank, and demand for financing.

A landmark M&A deal that brought into play the entire machinery of Credit Suisse stood out to the Judges, not only for its complexity, but for the degree of collaboration between the private and investment bank in delivering a trust setup, multiple new accounts, and sizeable new advisory mandates with minimal turnaround time. That Credit Suisse was able to direct a significant portion of these new assets into advisory mandates speaks to the success its Singapore team has had in impressing upon clients the benefits of the Credit Suisse Invest solution.

Another notable example of Credit Suisse’s one-bank collaboration in Singapore was a flagship bond issuance for a client, whose positive relationship on the private banking side led to Credit Suisse becoming a joint bookrunner, later earning the investment bank an exclusive mandate for a possible M&A transaction.

Credit Suisse’s demonstrable ability to deliver its ‘one bank’ promise should not be downplayed and is testament to a leadership team that has inculcated a culture of collaboration and emphasised strong product and markets knowledge, deep connectivity with Singapore’s community of entrepreneurs, and the benefits of ‘growing your own’ talent. The end result of the bank’s efforts is an incredibly compelling offering for end-clients, who not only benefitted from a steady pipeline of deals and unique solutions, but also Credit Suisse’s well-known strengths in wealth planning and philanthropic support via its SymAsia Foundation.

It all translated into a year of success for Credit Suisse in Singapore on the business front. NNA increased YoY as a direct result of investment bank-private bank referrals while net revenues and pre-tax income were also up for the same period, with revenues attributable to intra-business referrals reaching a record high.

Credit Suisse is Asian Private Banker’s Best Private Bank – Singapore for 2018.