Credit Suisse is offering Asian private banking clients who haven’t already signed up for the bank’s digital services more incentive – but needs big tech to do so.


By Shruti Advani, Guest Contributor finews.com


The Swiss bank is making tech giant Apple's business chat app available to private banking clients with accounts in Singapore and Hong Kong, it said in a statement. The move allows wealthy clients who are digital private banking users to communicate directly with the bank using the Messages app on iPhones and iPads.

The move, which comes alongside a similar push by local rival DBS recently, is an acknowledgement that private banks no longer have a lock on communicating with their clients – and that they need to link up with big technology firms to do so.

«Approximately 95 percent of our clients booked in Asia who access our mobile digital private banking platform are users of iPhones or iPads, so they can now communicate with us anytime anywhere through their preferred chat channel,» Francois Monnet, head of private banking for north Asia at Credit Suisse, said.

Checking Trades

Until recently, private banks shied away from communication outside of traditional email or taped phone conversations because of the need to log client enquiries or trades.

«Using messaging to communicate is a core part of our clients’ everyday life and fast becoming the next transformational shift all over the world,» Benjamin Cavalli, Credit Suisse's head of private banking in south Asia, said.

Now, clients can use Apples business chat app to communicate with their Credit Suisse team: obtaining information on their account balances and portfolio, or the status of their transactions in the first phase.

In-House Platform

In the next, Credit Suisse plans to add geographical booking centers and functionalities, such as allowing clients to perform self-servicing functions such as placing trade orders and completing tasks relating to their account such as submitting forms and updating their personal details, via the relationship managers.

To start an Apple chat, Credit Suisse clients can authenticate themselves via Credit Suisse's digital app, using the fully online onboarding process. Once completed, they are automatically connected to their Credit Suisse team to start their conversations.

The Credit Suisse team will access the messages from the chat through an in-house chat platform. This enables the messaging to be used as an acceptable channel for clients to communicate with the bank, with conversations in a secure and compliant environment.