CS Investment Bank: Things Are Looking Up

The Global Markets trading division has caused Credit Suisse (CS) and its CEO, Tidjane Thiam, headaches for a number of years. Brian Chin, the new CEO of the unit, is said to have the toughest job at Switzerland’s second-biggest bank.

Last year, the bank had to write off one billion francs and initiated a far-reaching cost-cutting exercise. Now, Chin says that things are looking up again.

«We feel like the heavy lifting is behind us and the bulk of the restructuring is done,» Chin told the «Financial Times» (behind paywall), adding that they were «poised to get back to business-as-usual-type discussions and activities and actually poised to grow a bit.»

Leveraged Finance Push

The U.K.-based newspaper also reported that Jim Amine, Chin’s counterpart at Investment Banking & Capital Markets was the one who would oversee most of the expansion. His focus is on gaining market share in leveraged finance.

In this segment, CS is No. 4 in the U.S. and No. 3 in Europe, the Middle East and Africa: «We still think there’s room to grow in Emea, because it is earlier in the credit cycle and it has more room to run.»