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Credit Suisse CEO Thiam targets bigger China presence

April 05, 2016 at 12:04 am EDT

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Credit Suisse Chief Executive Officer Tidjane Thiam said on Tuesday the Swiss bank has been "underweight" in China and would look to build its wealth management capabilities in the world's second-biggest economy, despite slowing growth.

Thiam told a media briefing on the sidelines of the annual Credit Suisse Asian Investment Conference in Hong Kong that he was not concerned by the slower economic growth in China. The CEO said he saw this as a natural development as the country transforms itself into a consumption-driven economy rather than one led by investment.

"We have been underweight (in) China and will continue to invest," said Thiam, 53, who joined the Zurich-based bank in July 2015. The banker said he would be spending five days in China as part of his current Asia trip, meeting clients and seeking to develop his understanding of their needs.

Thiam's focus on China comes at a time when Credit Suisse has made wealth management a key plank for its future growth. The bank is also shifting its focus to the Asia-Pacific region, where it already has an important presence in Southeast Asia: Thiam aims to more than double Asia-Pacific pre-tax income to 2.1 billion Swiss francs ($2.19 billion) by 2018.

China's blistering economic growth over the past decade has made it home to a million high-net-worth individuals, according to consultants Bain & Co, twice as many as in 2010. For foreign banks, Asia - and China in particular - has become the new battleground in developing wealth management business.

But making money onshore in China has proved a challenge for most foreign banks, hampered by the heavily protected nature of China's financial services sector.

Credit Suisse currently lacks an onshore license to operate wealth management business in China, but is considering securing one.

"Our strategy is primarily driven by wealth management and private banking," Thiam said. "We have a good customer base. Today we are offshore, but ultimately we will be onshore."

(Reporting by Denny Thomas and Lisa Jucca; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell)

By Denny Thomas and Lisa Jucca

Stocks mentioned in the article

	Add to a list Add to a list 0 selected To use this feature you must be a member Log in Sign up	Price	Change	5d. change	Capi.
	CREDIT SUISSE GROUP AG	0.817 CHF	-.--%	+0.84%	3.57B
	SWISS RE LTD	98.12 CHF	+0.12%	-7.43%	31.23B

Tidjane Thiam

Tidjane Thiam (born 29 July 1962) is an Ivorian businessman and former politician who is the Chief Executive of Prudential plc, the UK-based insurance group. Born in Côte d'Ivoire, he holds dual Ivorian and French citizenship. He studied advanced mathematics and physics in France before joining the management consultants [& Company] in 1986, where he worked until 1994. From 1994 to 1999 he worked in Côte d'Ivoire first as Chief Executive of the National Bureau for Technical Studies (BNETD), reporting directly to the Prime Minister and the President, and from 1998 as both Chairman of the BNETD and Minister of Planning and Development. Following the Ivorian coup of 1999, he resumed a private sector career and rejoined McKinsey in Paris from 2000 to 2002, then worked as a senior executive for Aviva before being recruited by Prudential. When appointed the chief executive of Prudential in 2009, he became the first black person to lead a FTSE 100 company.

His father, Amadou Thiam, a journalist, was born in Senegal and emigrated to Côte d'Ivoire in 1947. He supported Houphouet-Boigny in his fight for the independence of the country and served more than 10 years in the Ivorian cabinet after independence. He was a Grand Officier de la Legion d’honneur, France’s highest order of decoration. Tidjane’s uncle, Habib Thiam, was Prime Minister of Senegal for more than 10 years and also served as President of the National Assembly.

In 1982 Thiam was the first Ivorian to pass the entrance examination to the École Polytechnique in Paris. In 1984, he graduated from the École Polytechnique and in 1986 from the École Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Paris where he was top of his class. He received an MBA from INSEAD in 1988 (Dean's list). In 1989 he took a one-year sabbatical from McKinsey to participate in the World Bank's Young Professionals Program in Washington, D.C. He returned to McKinsey in 1990, working first in New York City and then in Paris. an infrastructure development and economic advisory body with more than 4,000 staff, reporting directly to the President and the Prime Minister. In that role, which had cabinet rank, he was also handling key negotiations with the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Thiam was also a key member of the Privatization Committee, in charge of privatising extensive state-owned assets.

Source @ Wikipedia

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