Winners rationale

With stock markets in Hong Kong and mainland China yielding negative returns in 2021, U/HNW clients were more reliant than usual on private bank’s equity advisory specialists to guide them through the stormy waters.

In that regard, one bank stood head and shoulders above the competition in terms of producing tactical ideas in cash equity and structured products that consistently generated profits for clients.

Those ideas translated into strong returns for clients and a robust business performance for Credit Suisse’s equities business in Asia. The bank’s tactical cash equities ideas comfortably outperformed those of the benchmark during the period under consideration, while the ratio of equity structured product ideas that generated positive returns for clients was industry-leading, despite volatile markets in Greater China. Both of those facts helped contribute to a generous revenue boost for Credit Suisse’s cash equity and equity structured products business in Asia, that was above and beyond that recorded by other WM players in the region.

The bank grew and saw robust inflows into its suite of SparkTrackers equity structured product offerings. The SparkTrackers products — which are linked to a variety of so-called supertrends themes from Asia Online Gaming to Future Foods — were coupled with timely client advice during times of market stress. One profitable idea generated during the period under consideration included advising investors to switch into the Sustainable China theme in order to capitalise on policy tailwinds when Beijing cracked down on the technology sector. Another trade was switching into SparkTrackers’ Post-Pandemic Recovery product in the second quarter to take advantage of an economic bounce in Europe.

In addition, Credit Suisse made strides in terms of deepening collaboration between its wealth management business and investment banking units as means of boosting the equity advisory function in the region. Examples of this include the introduction of fortnightly deep dives between the equities desk and investment bank analysts covering a range of sectors and regions. Such communication proved significant during the market sell-off in China in 2021, when the wealth management’s equity advisory desk was frequently briefed by the investment bank’s China technology analyst. Another differentiator for the bank during the year was the depth of access offered to external clients, who were able to directly contact Credit Suisse’s regional team of equity advisory specialists for trade ideas and execution.

For all these reasons, Credit Suisse is Asian Private Banker’s Best Private Bank – Equity Advisory for 2021.