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Credit Suisse's Private Banking Businesses In Profit; Asia Shines
Tom Burroughes
29 July 2016
(Repeat of item that appeared originally in WealthBriefing, sister publication to this one) yesterday reported pre-tax income for the second quarter of 2016 across all business lines of SFr199 million ($201.9 million), a swing back into the black following a pre-tax loss of SFr484 million in the previous quarter. The results did not cheer investors despite an initial bump in share prices at the bank; shares in the lender were down more than 5 per cent in the middle of the afternoon in London, at around SFr10.95 per share. The Zurich-listed lender’s three geographic divisions, mostly covering private banking and wealth – Asia-Pacific, Swiss universal bank and independent wealth management – delivered profitable growth, it said. The combined adjusted pre-tax income of these areas stood at SFr933 million, it said. In wealth management as a whole, there were net new money inflows of SFr11.3 billion, Tidjane Thiam, chief executive, said in a statement. In total across the private banking segments, assets under management at the end of June were SFr241.1 billion at the Swiss universal bank, SFr298.6 billion at IWM, and SFr158.4 billion in Asia. In the Asia region, Thiam said wealth management attracted SFr5.0 billion of net new assets and this region “achieved solid quarterly revenues, supported by our highest ever level of AuM”. Credit Suisse in Asia recruited more relationship managers, taking the total in the region to 650 from 550 in the last 12 months. Asia-Pacific International wealth management Credit Suisse’s IWM business generated net new assets across the IWM regions. In Q2 2016, wealth management achieved SFr5.4 billion of net new money. In the first half of this year, net new money of SFr10.8 billion corresponded to an annualised growth rate of 7 per cent. This contrasted with outflows of SFr500 million in the first half of least year. Swiss universal bank The SUB business reported an adjusted cost/income ratio of 65 per cent, compared to 67 per cent a year earlier. Credit Suisse, which has restructured its business lines, is to hold a partial IPO (representing around 20 to 30 per cent of its stake) in the Swiss universal banking business by the end of 2017. “We have applied for a Swiss banking license and expect our new Swiss legal entity, Credit Suisse (Schweiz) AG, to commence operations in Q4 2016,” it said. At the group level, the bank reported total operating costs of SFr4.937 billion, a fall of 6 per cent from the same period a year earlier; the firm said it is on track to be at, or below, its end-2016 costs target.
APAC delivered an adjusted pre-tax income of SFr216 million for Q2 2016. Wealth management in the region produced net revenues of SFr337 million in the quarter, while the region’s assets under management rose to a record SFr158 billion. In the first half of 2016, net new assets were SFr9.3 billion. Credit Suisse added 30 RMs to its teams in the quarter.
In the quarter, this IWM business reported adjusted pre-tax income of SFr260 million with stable net revenues of SFr1.145 billion, and stable adjusted return on regulatory capital of 22 per cent from the same quarter in 2015.
This business group reported adjusted pre-tax income of SFr457 million, an increase of 6 per cent on a year before (excluding results of the Swisscard business).