Winners rationale

Credit Suisse’s unparalleled track record of achievement in Asian Private Banker’s Awards for Distinction, put simply, is a direct reflection of the bank’s unflagging ambition to be the most relevant, innovative, and value-adding wealth manager to Asia’s entrepreneurs.

It’s an ambition clearly evidenced by Credit Suisse’s unique organisational design in APAC — an integrated model that engenders institutionalised collaboration between private banking, investment banking, and APAC Solutions — enabling the bank to expand and deepen its relationships with its clients across the region, year-over-year, and for which there is no comparative example.

Moreover, Credit Suisse continues to optimise its integrated platform offering, more recently deepening cross-departmental collaboration on strategic ultra-high-net-worth entrepreneurial clients, establishing a new Global Trading Solutions unit for UHNW private banking clients, and rolling out tech-enabled client dashboards designed to monitor, track, and ultimately deepen strategic client relationships.

It’s also an ambition evidenced by Credit Suisse’s willingness to make bold, high-conviction strategic decisions that address the future of Asian wealth management and the bank’s role in the industry. This is especially true of Credit Suisse’s commitments to — and following through on — onshoring and digital innovation. And in both instances, Credit Suisse is setting the standard.

In terms of onshoring, not only can the bank pride itself on meaningful presences in key onshore markets across the region, but it invests in these businesses in a way that demonstrates an acute understanding of on-the-ground realities and its own value add, with a net effect of deepening market penetration.

In 2020 alone, and selectively, Credit Suisse went live with a new core banking platform in India, developed its onshore presence and private banking capabilities in China with a key hire to boot, expanded its digital platform and product offering in Thailand, and increased traction with South Australia and New Zealand clients following a strategic push in 2019.

At the same time, Credit Suisse has continued to redefine the digital standard for Asia’s private banks and the client experience since the launch of the Digital Private Banking (DPB) platform in 2015 via innovations across the front, middle and back offices.

The journey, more recently, has centred on the personalisation of client advice and ideas, risk management, mobile client engagement, and B2B services, notably in intermediaries. And in 2020, when the pandemic disrupted ‘traditional’ modes of engagement, servicing and operations, the bank was well positioned to draw on the strength of this digital prowess to maintain operational continuity, intensify client engagement, and deliver the ‘right’ advice and solutions to its clients — in every market.

Of course, underpinning Credit Suisse’s value proposition in Asia — and again, evidence of the bank’s ambition — is a product and solutions offering that is as broad as it is deep, where the emphasis is on relevance, exclusivity, and personalisation through a client’s wealth life cycle, and to which enhancements — such as the recent build-out of sustainable and impact solutions — are constant.

That the bank is so effective at ensuring clients receive the best possible investment advice and solutions specific to their requirements is testament, both to its CIO Office — whose 2020 track record of tactical calls and resultant alpha generation was, from what the Judges saw, second-to-none in the Asia private banking industry — and to the digitally augmented investment advisory and sales function, which notched up another year of process refinement and major raises across asset and product classes. Notable successes include the bank’s distribution of innovative thematic tracker certificates and inflows into discretionary mandates — including “platinum” bespoke portfolios for ultra clients.

Beyond pure investment solutions, Credit Suisse’s wealth planning and family office services in Asia are a crucial pillar of the bank’s proposition and a point of differentiation by virtue of the team’s nuanced, advisory-led approach to helping wealthy families and entrepreneurs optimise their wealth structure and plan for the future, across generations. This function also links directly to Credit Suisse’s cutting-edge strategy for engaging and partnering with the next generation of clients — overseen by a next-gen Global Council and operationalised by equipping RMs with data-enabled assessments of individual next-gen relationships, and the requisite skills to further deepen those relationships.

As an employer, Credit Suisse deserves recognition for the inordinate emphasis it places on attracting, nurturing, and empowering its people and, critically, engendering a workplace environment conducive to collaboration, performance, and accountability. In 2020 alone, the bank established an on-the-go and self-directed platform for employees to upskill in a personalised manner to augment its already thorough training framework. It launched strategic recruitment campaigns via digital channels with a remarkable level of engagement from prospects — and employees as ambassadors for the bank.

Indeed, Credit Suisse’s commitment to its people shone through in its response to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The bank was not only one of the fastest to implement work-from-home initiatives with a focus on health and risk management, but it prioritised information flow and engagement throughout the ordeal with clear and positive flow-down effects on clients.

In a results-based industry, Credit Suisse doesn’t simply rely on market movements and beta to drive business performance. This is a bank that asks fundamental questions about its value add, its purpose and strategic agenda, and builds from there to ensure that it is the most relevant, effective, and innovative bank for Asia’s entrepreneurs.

Credit Suisse is Asian Private Banker’s Best Private Bank — Asia-Pacific for 2020.