Credit Suisse is still betting on China and looking to expand there by launching wealth management services after it secures full ownership of its local securities operation there, according to a «Reuters» story Friday. 

«In spite of all these rumors flying around that Credit Suisse is pulling back or pulling out of China, China is a long-term play for us,» said the head of the bank's Asia Pacific wealth management business Benjamin Cavalli, in an interview with the news outlet. 

A Work in Progress

According to «Reuters», the venture was delayed due to several factors, including staff departures, but some senior executive roles have been filled with more to come. So far, Credit Suisse hired some 50 staff for the wealth business, including relationship managers, and investment consultants, according to the report.

Credit Suisse upped its stake in the joint venture to 51 percent two years ago and is now looking to take full ownership and «the securities joint venture full acquisition will hopefully be a Q4 or Q1 event next year,» Cavalli said.

Long Term View

The wealth management market in China is about $4.2 trillion in a country where household wealth is growing faster than the economy. At a media conference earlier this week, Martin Hess, the head of economic policy at the Swiss Bankers Association said «Chinese are getting richer faster than Europeans.» Also, given economic developments in China, he is curious to see how assets develop further, Hess said, as finews.com reported.

For Cavalli, this means taking a long-term view in light of the huge potential for selling rich Chinese wealth management products. «We will never go into a new market where we feel we have to have a payback of three or four years and pull the trigger, this is unlike Credit Suisse,» he told Reuters.

Risk-Off

For now, Chinese firms dominate the distribution of proprietary and third-party wealth products in the country, where there is growing demand from high-net-worth individuals. However, the current market outlook is mixed.

Wealthy clients have become «risk-off» in the face of the pummeling the markets are undergoing, and Cavalli doesn't see an imminent turnaround saying «we see very little light at the end of the tunnel to suggest that there could be a potential recovery or that sentiment turns positive soon». Even so, has been able to temper some of the volatility due to the bank's large footprint in Asia in addition to its offshore wealth centers in Singapore and Hong Kong, the latter two of which Cavalli knows well.

Cavalli moved to Hong Kong from Singapore this year to become the sole head of the Asia wealth unit of Credit Suisse, as finews.com reported. 

Board Meets in Singapore

Meanwhile, the Credit Suisse board of directors is gathered in Singapore to find solutions for the ailing investment banking business. In the process, defenders with investment banking careers such as Michael Klein and Blythe Masters are apparently facing off against those forces that want to cut the business back hard, as reported by finews.com.