Credit Suisse is seeking to "enhance efficiency" in its onshore wealth-management units in western Europe and expand product offerings in the US, according to the Swiss private bank’s chief executive officer Brady Dougan.
Credit Suisse plans to cut approximately US$4.6 billion in annual costs by the end of 2015. The bulk of the Swiss lender’s future savings will come from its private banking and wealth management, as well as infrastructure, Dougan said at an investor conference in New York, as reported by Bloomberg Businessweek.
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The Zurich-based bank will be "opportunistic" about wealth-management acquisitions as well, Dougan said.
According to Dougan, "moderate outflows" may continue from the cross-border clients in western Europe, while Credit Suisse expects "solid growth" in its Swiss and emerging-markets wealth-management businesses, which together make up about 70% of total assets under management.
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By GlobalDataCredit Suisse is one of the many Swiss banks US authorities have been targeting for assisting Americans in evading taxes, following a US$780 million settlement with UBS in 2009.
At the end of 2012, the number of Swiss banks under investigation by the US Department of Justice (DoJ) increased to 13, including Credit Suisse, Geneva private bank Pictet and Bank Frey.
Credit Suisse, along with UBS, were named in a wide-spread investigation by The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) into offshore tax evasion in April 2013.
Towards the end of May, the chairman of Credit Suisse, Urs Rohner, warned that a long-running tax dispute over hidden Swiss bank accounts with the US could "easily escalate and spill over to rivals" if matters are not settled.
"Should the efforts to settle fail after nearly three years of intense negotiating, it could lead to an escalation of the fight. I can only warn of this," Rohner said.
