Viewing posts categorised under: Bank / Finance / Insurance

Credit Suisse puts up China brokerage venture for sale

by swisschambei in Bank / Finance / Insurance

Credit Suisse and a joint venture partner are seeking buyers for their China securities brokerage business due to the Swiss bank’s takeover by rival UBS, said two people with direct knowledge of the matter. Citigroup had at one point shown interest in acquiring Credit Suisse Securities China (CSS), they added. Citi, whose CEO Jane Fraser was in China this week, is setting up a securities brokerage in China. It had hoped to fast-track development via an acquisition but decided to stick to its original plan to grow the business organically, said one of the people.

 

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UBS Group AG Boosts Stake in Promising Chinese Biotech I-Mab

by swisschambei in Bank / Finance / Insurance

On June 5, 2023, it was reported that UBS Group AG had significantly increased its stake in I-Mab, a Chinese biotech company. In fact, the investment bank had boosted its ownership of IMAB shares by an impressive 390.4% during the fourth quarter of the previous year. According to filings made with SEC, UBS Group AG currently holds almost 550,000 shares of I-Mab—543,472 to be precise. This is after the Swiss firm purchased an additional 432,657 shares during the said period. At the time of filing in Q4 2022, these equities were valued at a noteworthy $2,272,000.

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Asia’s Super Rich Plan to Invest More in Greater China, UBS Says

by swisschambei in Bank / Finance / Insurance

Asia’s ultra-rich clans are poised to invest more in China after retreating in 2022, according to research from UBS Group AG. About 30% of family offices in Asia-Pacific plan to raise their allocation of assets in Greater China in the next five years, according to the Swiss bank’s global family office report, which surveyed 230 firms, including 45 single family offices from Asia. Only 6% of those in Asia plan on staying out of China completely.

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China High-quality Path Presents Key Opportunities for Reinsurance Industry

by swisschambei in Bank / Finance / Insurance

The insurance industry is expected to be on the track of steady development in China as the economy rapidly recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic, executives of global reinsurer Swiss Re said. China’s economic recovery this year is likely to be consumption-led and see stronger growth in contrast to the global economic slowdown, said Christian Mumenthaler, CEO of Swiss Re. “We observed that the pandemic had a lasting impact on the risks and demand for insurance,” Mumenthaler said. According to the Swiss Re Institute, global demand for risk protection has increased after pandemic, people are now more used to online interaction and rate hardening in non-life commercial insurance lines continues.

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UBS Set to Apply for China Mutual-Fund License

by swisschambei in Bank / Finance / Insurance

UBS Group AG is preparing to apply for a mutual-fund license in China, according to people familiar with the matter, becoming the latest Western bank to take advantage of Beijing’s relaxed rules on foreign financial institutions. The Swiss bank has held informal communications with the China Securities Regulatory Commission about its intention to apply, and plans to submit the application as soon as possible, some of the people said. UBS was the first foreign bank in China to take majority ownership of its local investment-banking unit, after regulators there scrapped the ownership limit in 2018. The rules were further loosened in late 2019, when China and the U.S. signed a landmark trade agreement that allowed investment banks, asset managers and credit-card companies to fully own their local operations.

 

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Credit Suisse to Launch Wealth Business in China Next Year

by swisschambei in Bank / Finance / Insurance

Credit Suisse plans to start offering wealth management services in China early next year after it won full ownership of a local securities venture. A senior Asia executive at the Swiss bank said it has hired dozens of staff for the new unit, despite a string of scandals, management changes and global strategy rejigs. “In spite of all these rumours flying around that Credit Suisse is pulling back or pulling out of China, China is a long-term play for us,” Benjamin Cavalli, head of its Asia Pacific wealth management business, said. The bank aims to start offering wealth management services in China next year on the back of securing full ownership of its local securities venture, which is likely by the first quarter of next year, Cavalli said. Credit Suisse’s China expansion plan comes even as the bank is cutting jobs and costs elsewhere in its efforts to recover from a string of losses and scandals. In July, the Swiss bank named its asset management boss as the new CEO. The plans for the China wealth business for next year, which have not been reported before, also come close on the heels of some media reports that Credit Suisse was reviewing its China business.

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UBS Plans to Expand China Footprint with New Mutual Fund Unit

by swisschambei in Bank / Finance / Insurance

UBS Group AG plans to set up a wholly owned mutual fund business in China, two people with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters, as the Swiss bank seeks to expand its footprint in the country’s USD 3.9 trillion retail fund market. UBS aims to launch the China fund unit in about two years, the people said. The bank’s asset management arm began hiring key personnel in recent months for the planned business, including a head of the company, one of them said. Strong impetus for the endeavour comes from the top. Ralph Hamers, UBS chief executive since November 2020, is willing to make new bets in China partly due to a success there enjoyed by the bank he previously ran, ING, said the second source. The new activity will expand a UBS presence in China that already includes a mutual fund joint venture and a private fund business. It comes amid intensifying competition in the mutual fund industry in the world’s second-largest economy, heightened by the scrapping of foreign ownership caps two years ago.

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Swiss Re Names Ivan Gonzalez as CEO of Reinsurance, China

by swisschambei in Bank / Finance / Insurance

Global reinsurance giant Swiss Re has announced that Ivan Gonzalez will serve as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Reinsurance for China and China Country President, where he relocates from New York to Beijing. In his new role, Gonzalez takes on responsibility for all of the firm’s reinsurance operations in China. Most recently, he served as the CEO of North America for Swiss Re Corporate Solutions, a role he held since 2016. His career began in 2001 as a financial analyst with Swiss Re Capital Partners in New York. In 2006, he moved to Swiss Re Group Strategy in Zurich and was later named CEO of Latin America for Swiss Re Corporate Solutions in 2011. Effective July 1st, Katie McGrath takes over from Gonzalez as Regional CEO for Swiss Re Corporate Solutions in North America, based in New York. She brings more than 25 years of experience across multiple roles in commercial insurance. McGrath joined the firm in 2019 and has since been responsible for its Accident & Health portfolio in North America. Prior to joining Swiss Re, she held several senior roles at AIG in New York.

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Credit Suisse Plans Accelerated China Expansion, Says China CEO

by swisschambei in Bank / Finance / Insurance

Swiss investment bank Credit Suisse Group AG plans to accelerate its expansion in China, growing its team on the mainland by three times in the next five years, China chief executive Janice Hu said. Speaking to a media roundtable, Hu said that Credit Suisse has hired more than 120 people since gaining a majority stake in its China securities joint venture in June 2020. Hu said that the bank was in close contact with regulators over cross-border data transfers. China implemented a Personal Information Protection Law from November 1, complementing a new Data Security Law in regulating cyberspace and safeguarding national security. The Data Security Law requires all companies in China to classify the data they handle into several categories and governs how such data is stored and transferred to other parties. “We are communicating with the regulator and our headquarters on a daily basis to achieve a plan that regulators can agree with and is feasible for us … this is at the core of our work,” Hu said. She also said the bank was in talks to provide financing for internet firms unable to list in the short term.

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UBS Qianhai Gets China’s Second Fund Distribution License

by swisschambei in Bank / Finance / Insurance

UBS Qianhai Wealth Management Co Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of UBS AG, announced on Monday it received approval from the Shenzhen Securities Regulatory Bureau to take part in securities investment fund distribution, becoming the second wholly foreign-owned institution to obtain a fund distribution license in China. According to the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System, UBS Qianhai was established on Feb 12, 2018, with registered capital of 206.25 million yuan ($31.99 million). It is totally controlled by Swiss firm UBS AG and is a wholly foreign-owned enterprise registered in Qianhai, Shenzhen. Shenzhen’s approval document said it should complete preparatory work within six months before starting business. Xu Jianzhou, CEO of UBS Asia Pacific, said hina is an important market for UBS. With China’s financial market continuously opening up and the overall development of the Greater Bay Area, UBS will take this opportunity to provide professional wealth management services and investor education.

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