Credit Suisse's New Swiss Entity Starts Legal Operations

Tom Burroughes

22 November 2016

Zurich-listed announced that its new Swiss legal entity, Credit Suisse (Schweiz) has legally started operations, a step taken as the bank restructured to comply with the Alpine state’s “too-big-to-fail” regime created to tackle future crises.

The new entity is a 100 per cent subsidiary of the bank and operates under its own banking licence. The organisation comprises the universal bank business for Swiss clients.

Earlier this year Credit Suisse announced the new structure so that it fits with a new regime the Swiss authorities have set up to prevent banking groups becoming so large that winding up parts of their business in the event of a crisis becomes impossible. In the 2008-09 financial crisis, the government gave financial aid to Switzerland’s largest lender, UBS. Switzerland’s hard-won reputation for rock-solid banking took a hit.

Credit Suisse has, meanwhile, reshaped its business divisions and has made a point of looking to Asia as a vital growth engine in future, such as for its private banking arm.

Clients of Credit Suisse will see no noticeable effect from the change, the banks said in a statement.

“The creation of Credit Suisse (Schweiz) AG is not only about the implementation of new regulatory requirements but also allows our Swiss business to build on the positive development over the past few quarters and gain further market shares in our crucially important home market,” Tidjane Thiam, Credit Suisse group chief executive.

As previously announced, the Board of Directors of Credit Suisse (Schweiz) AG is composed of the following members: Alexandre Zeller (chairman), Peter Derendinger, Alexander Gut, Andreas Koopmann, Urs Rohner, Severin Schwan and Tidjane Thiam.