Additional compliance is slowing customer onboarding down at the Swiss Bank in Asia.
Credit Suisse has a waiting list of 600 people in Asia, including top priority clients, waiting to deposit hundreds of millions in assets, the «Financial Times» reports, citing people familiar with the matter.
While it is taking up to eight months for the bank to check and approve regular wealthy customers, clients sitting on between 10 million US dollars and 15 million US dollars with hundreds of millions in assets, are having to wait up to four months to deposit their holdings, the report said.
After a slew of scandals and fines related to money laundering and oversights in due diligence, the bank introduced stringent source of wealth (SoW) corroboration standards for new clients in November last year, the report said.
Growth Rate
Francesco De Ferrari, head of wealth management globally, said at a presentation to investors last week that Asia-Pacific had the highest expected growth rate of any region at 10 percent, the newspaper wrote, adding that he also warned that rising interest rates and market downturn had proved a headwind in recent months.
Credit Suisse started a recruiting push in Asia in 2021 and hired 80 relationship managers for its wealth management business last year and will add another 30 this year, the report said.
In an emailed statement the bank said that as it continues to recruit bankers and acquire new clients in Asia Pacific: «it’s very important to us that we fully meet all the regulatory requirements and we review this regularly. We continuously assess the need to support the business, hire resources, and invest in technology to accelerate processes to ensure clients are onboarded in a fully compliant manner.»
