Credit Suisse chief boasts stability to attract rich clients

Credit Suisse and Switzerland as a whole have already implemented most of the measures proposed at the G-20 summit to avoid another financial market crisis, the bank's chief executive Brady Dougan said today.

In an interview with Swiss daily TagesAnzeiger a week after the bank announced plans to become "the most admired" wealth management player, Dougan said he expected to gain market share among wealthy and very wealthy private banking clients, as his bank has performed well in the crisis.

Credit Suisse has overtaken UBS as Switzerland's largest bank in terms of market capitalisation, and was able decline government aid in the financial downturn. It has one of the strongest capital ratios in the industry.

Last week, Credit Suisse said it did better last year in attracting net new money than all its top listed Swiss private banking competitors. It managed 746 billion Swiss francs ($724 billion) of individual clients' money in the first half of 2009.

Amid a global clampdown on tax evasion, Dougan said Credit Suisse had been working for five years to make sure it conforms to foreign banking laws, as well as building up its onshore banking business and making sure its offshore businesses are compliant.

Asked whether Credit Suisse might suffer the same kind of US tax probe which has damaged UBS, he said, "We are doing everything so that our businesses are compliant. But one can never rule out that sometime, perhaps, an isolated case with problems emerges."