Winners rationale

In a subregion as competitive as North Asia, any private bank that wishes to deepen its HNW market share for the long term — and realise sustainable growth in the process — must strike a fine balance between reinforcing and scaling up its ‘traditional’ offshore business and addressing challenges and opportunities that stand to shape wealth management in the years to come. These include the rise of onshore hubs, the need for greater digitisation, and clients’ demand for value, access to differentiated investment opportunities, and greater personalisation in content, advice and solutions.

Credit Suisse, a heavyweight in the North Asia region, has never shied away from these challenges and opportunities and, in many ways, has played a leading role in evolving the private banking model to meet the changing needs of clients. And that foresight continues to prove its worth, especially in a year as complex as 2020 when the COVID-19 crisis caused inordinate operational and financial markets complexity.

While not immune to these challenges, Credit Suisse was well prepared to face them head-on — and to support and empower clients as a result. Its consistent and erudite investments into its digital platform and services — including its widely recognised Digital Private Banking platform, CS Chat service, and a range of execution and centralised management tools — ensured continuity in client engagement and servicing, with employees across the board empowered to work from home from a very early stage. Moreover, the bank was quick to adjust to a ‘new normal’ scenario by leveraging its multiple digital touchpoints to disseminate content and insights to clients in a manner of their choosing, delivering webinars and conference calls, multiple podcasts, and a constant stream of video content.

At the same time, Credit Suisse was quick to respond to rapidly shifting markets by delivering a best-in-class range of investment solutions that addressed key themes facing clients: volatility management, a low interest rate environment, and long-term structural trends — via the rollout of an innovative range of thematic AMCs, and major enhancements to its sustainable investing product suite.

The bank’s investments extended to its human capital, with an emphasis on both opportunistic, strategic hires and developing talent within. Thus, though the bank added new RMs and ICs in North Asia in 2020, its efforts to ‘grow its own’ and inculcate the organisation with a culture of ownership top-to-bottom shine through in the bank’s industry-leading productivity rates.

Meanwhile, Credit Suisse has continued to take concerted steps in China onshore, by taking majority ownership of Credit Suisse Founder Securities and again making significant hires in the market, paving the way for the establishment of an onshore private banking franchise. In fact, across every North Asian market where Credit Suisse Private Banking operates — China international, Hong Kong, Taiwan international, and Japan — it has made strategic progress and demonstrated genuine business traction with strong client asset growth, healthy year-on-year growth in gross and net revenue and, significantly, a marked increase in the subregion’s economic contribution to the APAC franchise as a whole.

These are telling signs of a private bank that treats each market as a strategic priority, to which it extends its integrated model, and leading solutions and servicing platform with consistency and conviction. And these are telling signs of a bank that understands where the wealth management industry is headed and what this means for an ever-swelling HNW client pool in North Asia.

Credit Suisse is Asian Private Banker’s Best Private Bank – North Asia HNW for 2020.