Business Description
Our strategy builds on Credit Suisse’s core strengths: its position as
a leading global wealth manager, its specialist investment banking capabilities
and its strong presence in our home market of Switzerland. We take a balanced
approach to capture the wealth management opportunities in emerging markets,
the largest of which is in the Asia Pacific region, while also serving key developed
markets with an emphasis on Switzerland. Founded in 1856, we today have a global
reach with operations in over 50 countries and 48,200 employees from over 150
different nations. Our broad footprint helps us to generate a geographically
balanced stream of revenues and net new assets and allows us to capture growth
opportunities around the world. We serve our clients through three regionally
focused divisions: Swiss Universal Bank, International Wealth Management and
Asia Pacific. These regional businesses are supported by two other divisions
specializing in investment banking capabilities: Global Markets and Investment
Banking & Capital Markets. The Strategic Resolution Unit consolidates the
remaining portfolios from the former non-strategic units plus additional businesses
and positions that do not fit with our strategic direction. Our business divisions
cooperate closely to provide holistic financial solutions, including innovative
products and specially tailored advice.
Our new strategy aims to strengthen our position as a leading private bank
and wealth manager, with strong and distinctive investment banking capabilities,
to achieve our goal of profitable growth while generating significant capital
through the cycle. We are accelerating the rebalancing of capital towards our
private banking businesses to optimize its allocation and focus on the highest-returning,
most scalable opportunities.
We are focused on growing in Asia Pacific and other emerging markets in order
to capture the significant wealth management prospects in those markets. We
expect that emerging markets will account for approximately 60% of the growth
in global wealth in the coming years, with first generation entrepreneurs driving
much of the wealth opportunity. We believe that positioning ourselves as the
“Bank for Entrepreneurs” by leveraging our strengths in wealth management
and investment banking will provide us with key competitive advantages to succeed
in these markets as we provide clients with a range of services to protect and
grow their wealth.
Despite slower growth, mature markets are still expected to remain important
and account for more than half of wealth distribution by 2019. As a result,
we plan to take a balanced approach to resource allocation with the goal of
capitalizing on opportunities in markets such as Western Europe and Japan. In
Western Europe, we also plan to accelerate efficiencies by consolidating booking
centers and developing a hub and spoke service model. In the US, we have exited
private banking investment advisory but plan to continue to cover the corporate
and complex personal wealth needs of >>>ultra-high-net-worth individuals
(UHNWI) from our Investment Banking &
Capital Markets business.
Switzerland, as our home market, provides compelling opportunities for Credit
Suisse. To further expand our position with Swiss private, corporate and institutional
clients and take advantage of consolidation opportunities, we have created a
dedicated Swiss Universal Bank. Management focus and accountability will be
enhanced, simplifying the prior structure and allowing the bank to build on
its entrepreneurial heritage and further leveraging its brand. We provide a
full range of services to private, corporate and institutional clients with
a specific focus on becoming the “Bank for Entrepreneurs.” We intend
to pursue an initial public offering (IPO) by the end of 2017, market conditions
permitting, of between 20% and 30% of the legal entity Credit Suisse (Schweiz)
AG. Any such IPO would be subject to, among other things, all necessary approvals
and would be intended to generate/raise additional capital for Credit Suisse
AG or Credit Suisse (Schweiz) AG.
Our intention is to focus on the investment banking businesses that support
our wealth management clients, and businesses that deliver returns in excess
of their cost of capital and have leading market positions. Within our Global
Markets division, we continue to right-size our operations by exiting or downsizing
selected businesses consistent with our lower risk profile and higher return
on capital objectives. In Global Markets, we have reduced risk-weighted assets
and leverage exposures to below the targets we had set for the end of 2015.
We plan to further invest in our leading equities franchise and restructure
our fixed income activities to generate more stable earnings through the cycle.
In our Investment Banking & Capital Markets division, we are rebalancing
our activities towards advisory and equity underwriting and towards investment
grade corporates, which should help us to generate higher-quality earnings.
We have formed a new Strategic Resolution Unit intended to oversee the effective
wind-down of businesses and positions that do not fit our strategic direction
in the most efficient manner possible. The Strategic Resolution Unit consolidates
the remaining portfolios from our former non-strategic units plus additional
activities and businesses from the investment banking and private banking businesses
that are no longer considered strategic. We aim to reduce the Strategic Resolution
Unit’s risk-weighted assets and leverage exposure by approximately 80%
by 2020, excluding operational risk.
%
1.08%