Credit Suisse shuffles top executives, merges units

Credit Suisse's private banking arm will swallow its smaller asset management unit and absorb some investment bank activities, triggering a management shake-up of those jockeying to succeed its chief executive. The Zurich-based bank also reinforced its commitment to the fixed income business, all but abandoned by Swiss rival UBS. Credit Suisse promoted debt banker Gael de Boissard, who will co-run its investment bank from November 30 and join its top management team from next year.
De Boissard will run fixed income and head Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Eric Varvel, now chief of investment banking, will run equities and the investment banking department, which includes corporate finance, as well as becoming chief executive of Asia-Pacific, the bank said.
At the private banking unit, which looks after the financial affairs of wealthy clients, current head Hans-Ulrich Meister will be joined by asset management head Robert Shafir, who is credited with making his former unit more profitable, though it is still dwarfed by the private bank and investment bank units. The changes shuffle the top executives in the running to succeed Chief Executive Brady Dougan, even as the 53-year-old American in charge since 2007 seems to have cemented his position by keeping Credit Suisse focused on investment banking.
"The two names mentioned most often (to succeed Dougan) are Meister and Shafir. They don't get along, so if one jumps ahead, then the other one is likely to leave," an industry source who has worked with both men told Reuters last week. The shake-up potentially weakens Meister, a 53-year-old Swiss retail and corporate banker who has made no secret of his ambition as he moved swiftly up the bank since joining from UBS in 2007, but who is seen as scant on international experience.
By contrast, the measures strengthen Shafir, a 54-year-old American virtually unknown in Switzerland except as Credit Suisse's highest earner in 2011, when he took home 8.5 million francs in overall pay. Credit Suisse said Shafir would take responsibility for all private banking and asset management operations in the Americas. Meister will run private banking in Switzerland, Europe the Middle East, Africa, and Asia, plus all Swiss client businesses.