Credit Suisse, a global investment bank and financial services firm, has signed a deal with Barclays Bank to take on rich clients in Ghanaian Wealth Management Market and other parts of Africa, after it decided to exit wealth management in some Sub Saharan African countries.
According to the report, Credit Suisse Group is stopping wealth management operations in nine markets in the sub-Saharan region. These markets include: Ghana, Botswana, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Mauritius, Nigeria, Seychelles, Tanzania, and Zambia.
The Swiss financial services firm is therefore, referring its private banking clients in these markets to Barclays PLC (NYSE: BCS). However, Credit Suisse plans to retain its South African operations.
“Credit Suisse has signed a private banking client referral agreement with Barclays as part of the plan to exit nine non-core wealth management markets primarily in Sub-Saharan Africa, excluding South Africa – as announced in November 2021 as part of the bank’s Group Strategy Review.”
Credit Suisse
According to the Credit Suisse Group, the agreement forms part of the company’s strategic plan, which it announced in November last year, to exit non-core wealth management markets in the sub-Saharan region.
The Worth of Assets Involved
The report indicated that, per the agreement, assets worth around $2.5 billion could move to the U.K. based bank, Barclays.
The bank asserted that the withdrawal is because they are not part of Credit Suisse’s core wealth management business.
The financial terms of the deal between the Credit Suisse and Barclays would depend on how many clients transferred their assets, the report added, citing people familiar with the matter. No financial terms of the agreement with Barclays were disclosed.
As part of the Zurich Headquartered investment firm’s mission, Credit Suisse offers various investment products, private banking, wealth management, financial advisory services, securities underwriting, sales and trading, and insurance and pension solutions.
The company’s shares closed 1.4% lower on Friday, February 4. The stock lost another 6.7 percent in after-hours trading to end the day at $8.95.
Experts noted that the new agreement is likely to impact the company’s stocks to trade higher when market opens next week.
A similar agreement was brokered last year 2021, where the Swiss bank inked a strategic tie-up with a fintech Moneypark and with Pricehubble in a home equity loan cooperation whose digital platform is roiling the Swiss mortgage lending market.
Moneypark, a Swiss fintech backed by insurer Helvetia, is the market leader in online mortgage broking in Switzerland, usurping major home equity lenders UBS, Credit Suisse, Raiffeisen, and cantonal banks. Pricehubble, also co-founded by Moneypark founder Stefan Heitmann, offers property valuations and market insights to financial service providers.
Specifically, as part of the agreement, Credit Suisse clients will have access to a property dashboard with data such as property valuation and market dynamics baked in. They can also search for property investments or find potential buyers – with Credit Suisse’s financing solutions.
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