Credit Suisse is merging its private banking businesses in Eastern Europe, Africa and the Middle East with western Europe, part of a restructuring exercise.

Credit Suisse is merging its private banking businesses in Eastern Europe, Africa and the Middle East with western Europe as part of a restructuring exercise, the bank confirmed to this publication today.

The combination of the regions starts on 1 October, according to a memorandum sent to staff. "We expect the technical implementation of the new Business Area to go live on January 1, 2015," it said in its memo on the changes.

The story coincided with the bank’s announcement – reported elsewhere by this publication – of some high-level changes to leadership in private banking. It has appointed Benjamin Cavalli as managing director and market area head, Southeast Asia and head of Singapore location for private banking in the Asia-Pacific region, starting from 1 October. Cavalli replaces Claudio de Sanctis, who will be moving to Credit Suisse’s Private Banking EMEA region as head of private banking for Northern and Eastern Europe.

The memo said that Romeo Lacher, currently head of private banking in western Europe, will lead the merged unit while Alois Baettig is leaving the firm after stepping down as head of private banking in eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa, according to a separate memo.

“The time is right to bring the two teams back under one management,” Gael de Boissard the bank’s chief executive officer for EMEA and Hans-Ulrich Meister, co-head of the bank’s private banking and wealth management unit, said in the memo describing the organisational changes.

"Strategic decisions, such as the recently closed sale of our German domestic setup have been executed very effectively and together with the planned sale of the local affluent business in Italy, Western Europe will be focusing even more on growing the right target client segment going forward. With the Non-Strategic Unit managing the remaining re-structuring, the management team can now focus on accelerating revenue growth, gaining market share in the UHNWI and Premium HNWI segments, and finally, enhancing its contribution to the division’s results. At the same time, Private Banking EEMEA has contributed significantly to our overall growth in emerging markets, established a leading UHNWI franchise and developed a cost efficient business model," the memo continued.

Baettig is leaving to pursue personal interests outside the bank after a 40-year career at Credit Suisse, according to the memo announcing his departure.