Credit Suisse fared well during the subprime crisis. Brian Caplen asks CEO Brady Dougan what underlies the bank’s new stability and what it is planning for the year ahead.

UBS
Peter Wuffli, CEO

The other axis on which the fortunes of the two rivals have recently pivoted has been the quiet world of Swiss private banking. In 2004, private banking and wealth management contributed 38% of UBS’s pre-tax profits, almost matching the 40% from the investment bank. At Credit Suisse, the proportion is even higher, with the private bank alone accounting for 42% of the group’s net income last year.

The changes in fortune of the two giant Swiss banks, Credit Suisse and UBS, offer lessons in growth strategy to bank CEOs. Geraldine Lambe and Sophie Röell look at the strategies that have worked and those that have not.

chairman and CEO, wealth management and business banking, UBS
“Meteoric rise” would be an appropriate phrase to describe Marcel Rohner’s ascent to the group executive board of Swiss giant UBS. At 40, the demure Swiss economist appears the type of Swiss banker that people would not hesitate to entrust with the family fortune.