Intense times for wealth managers at Credit Suisse Singapore
It's a difficult time to be a wealth manager at Credit Suisse.
After the Swiss bank lost around 10% of its asset under management during fears for its solvency in October, Bloomberg reports that wealth managers at the bank are under pressure to bring assets back in. They are reportedly “being driven not by incentives but by fear of getting fired.”
Credit Suisse employs 1,800 wealth managers and they have reportedly reached out to 8,000 clients, representing 80% of assets under management, said CS chairman Axel Lehmann.
The intention is that clients will return assets to Credit Suisse. However, achieving this is not easy. New loans reportedly can't be made until clients have returned assets, paid off old loans or promised to do new business with Credit Suisse. It doesn't help that clients face potential margin calls due to liquidity issues.
The stress compounds a situation we reported last month, wherein a colossal compliance-related backlog meant that APAC private banking clients were waiting for up to eight months to open accounts, meaning the bank was leaking portfolio managers in the process.
The stress at Credit Suisse comes as other banks in APAC, and Singapore are hiring. HSBC has opened a new office in Singapore with the explicit mandate to expand, Bloomberg reports.
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