The Swiss bank announces a major hire for its India business, seen as an important wealth management growth market. The appointee has worked in the financial industry for three decades.

Credit Suisse has appointed private banking veteran Puneet Matta as head of wealth management for India, starting 1 June, a move that sees him rejoin the Swiss bank from Union Bancaire Privée.

Inigo Mendoza was in this role previously; he has moved back to Credit Suisse in Europe’s IWM business in another role – head of private banking international for Southern Europe and Latin America, a spokesperson told this news service when asked for clarification.

Matta has 30 years of industry experience across wealth management as well as corporate and investment banking; he has spent much of his career concentrating on the Non-Resident Indian and Indian Sub-Continent client segments.

Prior to this, Matta worked at UBP in several roles in the NRI and ISC segments and also in the External Asset Managers business. His most recent role at UBP was head of EAM Asia and Key Clients South Asia.

He will report functionally to Balakrishnan Kunnambath, market group head Indian Sub-Continent, and locally to Mickey Doshi, India chief executive. Matta will move from Singapore to Mumbai, India.

“Since launching our wealth management platform in India in 2008, our team and assets have grown from strength to strength through our unique onshore-offshore model. Clients in India are increasingly looking for global investment opportunities and our set-up is well-positioned to capture this booming demand,” Kunnambath said. “With Credit Suisse’s vision as the bank for entrepreneurs in Asia-Pacific, we are looking to systematically increase our collaboration efforts between our domestic investment banking franchise, Asia Pacific Trading Solutions and our wealth management team.”

Benjamin Cavalli, head of South Asia private banking at the Zurich-listed firm, added: “This appointment underscores the importance of our successful domestic franchise in India and our commitment to this market which is a key growth location for Credit Suisse’s wealth management business.”

The bank wants to tap into wealth growth in India; the country’s total wealth has increased four-fold since 2000, as reported in the tenth edition of the Global Wealth Report by the Credit Suisse Research Institute, reaching $12.6 trillion in 2019. India is ranked fifth globally in terms of the number of ultra-high net worth individuals, with 4,460 adults having wealth of more than $50 million and 1,790 having more than $100 million, according to Credit Suisse estimates.