Credit Suisse has come up in conversation a couple of times this week. First the rumour mill said that Euromoney’s Best global bank – according to the 2010 Awards for excellence – was moving its spot FX operation back to London from Zurich. Which would be a turn up after all the brouhaha that banks would desert the UK in favour of countries that were more tax- and bonus-friendly.
But it seems the rumour was only partly true. Credit Suisse is only moving some of the team back to London. A Credit Suisse spokesperson says: “As part of our ongoing effort to maximize the impact of our trading staff, we have decided to co-locate European spot trading in London and Zurich, which will allow us to serve both our Swiss and European clients better.” But I reckon it might show that, despite the efficiencies of electronic execution, there are still benefits to be had from sales and execution being able to shout at each other over their desks.
Then the mill claimed that the Swiss bank had shut down its largely New York-based proprietary trading team. We haven’t been able to get any confirmation or clarification of this and don’t expect any – as Brady Dougan told Euromoney in July, the bank had changed to a “client-focused, capital-efficient strategy” upon his becoming Credit Suisse’s CEO in 2007 and that the implementation of the strategy accelerated throughout 2008 and post-Lehman.