Anna Jiwon Park has been covering the politics at The Korea Times since the summer of 2024, when she joined the press pool for the Office of the President in Korea. Prior to that, she spent about five years reporting extensively on financial markets, regulatory authorities and the financial industry. She joined The Korea Times in 2019 after spending eight years as a broadcast journalist at Arirang TV, Korea’s leading global broadcaster, covering politics, defense and culture.
Credit Suisse's Korea operation aims to maintain key status amid restructuring plan
The logo of Swiss bank Credit Suisse is seen at its headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland, March 24, 2021. Reuters-Yonhap
By Anna J. Park
By Anna J. Park
Credit Suisse announced a series of radical restructuring measures to revamp its global banking business on Thursday, after taking three months of thoroughly reviewing and reassessing its strategic future directions. The measures came as the Switzerland-headquartered bank posted its fourth straight quarterly loss for the third quarter of this year. According to its earnings announcement released earlier this week, the global lender lost $346 million in the third quarter alone, a drastic contrast from its $1 billion profit recorded a year ago.
Countering months of market rumors of its possible crash, the bank's series of new strategic goals expressed its fresh determination to navigate through the current crisis by taking the drastic restructuring initiatives.
According to the 166-year-old financial company, its new strategic goals will be strengthening its asset and wealth management business operations, while planning to raise $4 billion in capital through issuing new shares to qualified investors. The global bank will also make a variety of cost-cutting moves, aiming to cut 15 percent of its total annual costs by 2025. The bank has about 52,000 employees globally as of the end of September, and it plans to lay off 9,000 employees by 2025 as part of its cost-cutting plan.
Credit Suisse will also spin out its investment banking operation by launching a new firm named Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB). First Boston was a prestigious investment bank that Credit Suisse acquired in the late 1980s, and the global bank decided to revive the name to emphasize the brand's heritage.
Chun-kee Lee, who's been leading the global lender's operation in Korea for the past two decades, said the company's new strategic goals and capital raise will dispel market concerns over its solvency.
“Korea has been one of the key countries in Credit Suisse group's Asia-focused growth strategies, and Credit Suisse has long strengthened its top-notch global investment bank status in the country. The announcement of the new strategic goals will remind our clients in Korea that Credit Suisse will continue its efforts for them,” Lee said.