# Credit Suisse Private Banking & Wealth Management (UBS)

Credit Suisse Private Banking & Wealth Management (UBS) is a Bank / Wealth / Trust based in Kowloon, Hong Kong.

## Overview

- **Organization type:** Bank / Wealth / Trust
- **Headquarters:** Kowloon, Hong Kong
- **Region:** Asia
- **Address:** Kowloon, Hong Kong
- **Founded:** 1856
- **Assets under management:** Undisclosed
- **Website:** ubs.com
- **LinkedIn:** linkedin.com/company/credit-suisse-private-banking-sa

## Regulatory record

- **Reports private funds:** No

## About

Credit Suisse Private Banking & Wealth Management, now part of UBS Group AG, traces its lineage to 1856 when Alfred Escher founded Schweizerische Kreditanstalt to finance Swiss rail and industrialization. For over 160 years, the bank's wealth division served as the primary entry point for global capital into Switzerland's private-banking system, building a franchise that by 2022 managed roughly CHF 1.6 trillion in client assets. The unit's Asia-Pacific practice, headquartered in Hong Kong, became its most strategically valuable division, catering to the region's rapidly expanding billionaire class and family offices. Under UBS, the combined wealth unit allocates across private markets, credit, real estate, and hedge funds, with Hong Kong serving as the regional hub for direct investments, structured lending, and multi-asset discretionary mandates. The integrated platform places UBS as the largest non-Asian wealth manager operating onshore in China, via its legacy Credit Suisse securities joint venture, and maintains deep booking-center relationships in Singapore, Tokyo, and Dubai. Known structured products include bespoke Lombard lending facilities, private equity co-investment access, and tailored real-estate-backed financing for ultra-high-net-worth families. Team scale and footprint remain in flux amid the integration; UBS reported approximately 35,000 wealth management employees globally post-merger, with roughly 6,000 legacy Credit Suisse wealth staff in Asia-Pacific alone. The Hong Kong office operates alongside Switzerland, Singapore, New York, and London as a global wealth hub. UBS folded the Credit Suisse brand officially in May 2024, retiring the 168-year-old name after completing the legal merger. Iqbal Khan and co-president Robert Karofsky now oversee the multi-year process of unifying the technology platforms, relationship-manager teams, and product shelves. The structural differentiator is regulatory-swift consolidation — UBS absorbed a systematically important global wealth franchise in under two years without triggering the client-flight that typically follows forced banking mergers. The combined entity now runs approximately $3.4 trillion in invested assets globally, giving UBS a market share in Asia-Pacific private banking that exceeds 15%, according to Asian Private Banker league tables. Succession planning for the legacy Credit Suisse relationship managers and the long-term governance of the Hong Kong booking center remain the defining organizational questions.

## Sectors

- Private Credit
- Real Estate
- Private Equity
- Hedge Funds
- Secondaries & Special Situations

## People

- Iqbal Khan — Co-President, UBS Global Wealth Management
- Sergio Ermotti — Group CEO, UBS Group AG

## Questions

### How does UBS Global Wealth Management structure its Asia-Pacific operations post-Credit Suisse acquisition?

Hong Kong remains the primary Asia-Pacific wealth hub, with Singapore and Tokyo as secondary booking centers. The combined entity operates through legacy UBS branches, Credit Suisse's Hong Kong and Singapore bank licenses, and a mainland China securities joint venture originally established by Credit Suisse. UBS has signaled it will retain both Hong Kong booking platforms to segment ultra-high-net-worth and core affluent clients, though the long-term platform-unification roadmap remains undisclosed (per UBS investor communications, 2024).

### What happened to Credit Suisse's relationship managers in Hong Kong after the acquisition?

UBS absorbed roughly 6,000 legacy Credit Suisse wealth-management employees in Asia-Pacific, with the Hong Kong and Singapore teams the largest cohorts. A retention program was deployed to secure senior relationship managers who oversee the top 100 client relationships, though integration-driven attrition has been reported. By mid-2024, UBS publicly stated that client-advisor migrations were tracking ahead of internal targets (per UBS earnings commentary, Q1 2024).

### How does UBS manage conflicts between its advisory and lending businesses in wealth management?

UBS operates under Swiss Banking Association cross-border guidelines and Hong Kong regulatory protocols, which require disclosure of loan-linked product incentives and pre-trade fee transparency. Credit Suisse had previously faced regulatory sanctions in multiple jurisdictions over conflicts in structured-product sales; post-merger, UBS has publicly committed to a unified conflict-management framework governed by the Group's legal and compliance function, operating independently of the commercial wealth units.

### How does the Credit Suisse integration affect custody and asset-safety for existing Hong Kong clients?

All former Credit Suisse wealth-management accounts in Hong Kong were migrated to UBS AG Hong Kong as the legal booking entity by late 2024, with client securities held in UBS custody. Swiss and Hong Kong depositor-protection schemes apply in parallel, and UBS maintains the same segregated-client-asset structure across both legacy platforms. Clients were notified of the contract novation process in tranches through 2024 (per client communications reviewed by financial publications).

## Related profiles

- [Credit Suisse Hedging-Griffo](https://altss.com/profile/credit-suisse-hedging-griffo)
- [Credo](https://altss.com/profile/credo)

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Last updated: 2026-07-06T00:32:34.048Z

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