Wealthy clients sitting on large piles of cash and liquid assets are likely to turn to structured products in the next six months if current market conditions persist, according to one of the top private bankers at Credit Suisse, Reuters reports.

"We see the current desire to hold cash and the little interest in holding complex structures as a short-term situation. We expect to see a trend reversal on that side," Rolf Boegli, head of Private Banking Switzerland, was quoted as saying at a conference yesterday.

His comments come at a time when wealth management strategists and investment industry figures have told WealthBriefing that high net worth clients remain cautious, although there are signs of a move back into risk assets because cash delivers wafer thin returns in a low interest rate environment.

Boegli said he already saw an uptick in structured products since the market started to stabilise a couple of months ago.

The structured products market has been recovering after it was hit by the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers in September 2008; the collapse of the bank, which was a key player in the structured products sector, stoked fears about the capital guarantees that such banks typically provide in these products. The Lehman collapse has raised concerns about counter-party risks that investors in such products can face.

"If the market proves to continue to be as it is I would expect that within six months clients would move out of liquidity and cash into more sophisticated products," Boegli was quoted as saying.