Euromoney Awards for Excellence 2009
Awards for Excellence 2009: Best investment bank
A culture rooted in detailTHE MANUAL FOR traditional investment banking would not recommend shutting down some of the few business lines in which you are a clear market leader and refocusing your efforts on other areas where profits and margins have been notoriously hard to come by.
But the past two years has not been a period in which it has necessarily been wise to follow the accepted texts.
In that period, Credit Suisse has ripped up much of its old blueprint for investment banking. It has taken tough decisions that caused its shareholders, and management, a deal of pain.
But it has re-emerged as a clear leading player in investment banking. The firm’s results for the first quarter were among the best in the industry (see best investment bank award). Credit Suisse is reaping the rewards of those tough, and timely, choices.
"We recognized very early on that there was a new world order," says Paul Calello, chief executive of Credit Suisse’s investment bank. "No firm has been as clear in articulating its new strategy as we have been – or as decisive in reallocating resources."