Credit Suisse has been covering clients in Thailand since 1996, but in 2016 it went a step further and established a presence in the onshore wealth management market. It has performed impressively since then. The firm’s assets under management in Thailand rose by double digits in percentage terms for three years in a row.
Its net new assets were particularly large in 2019, up about 105% from the previous year. A big part of that was in the form of assets Credit Suisse’s clients had moved back from the offshore market, a good example of a foreign private bank contributing to the growth of the local market.
Marcus Sloor, market group head for Thailand and Vietnam, has overseen a neat application of Credit Suisse’s global raison d’etre, bringing together private bankers and investments to add value to both businesses.
This includes the bank’s work on a recent, large domestic IPO. The private banking team helped drive orders for this deal and helped shareholders in the company manage the cash they raised, according to a source familiar with the deal.
The team covering the country is split between Singapore and Thailand, but more than two thirds of the relationship managers are Thai. By two key productivity measures, they have had a good year. Assets under management per RM were up 14% in 2019, while revenue per RM was 13% higher.