Swiss banking giant Credit Suisse has hired nine senior executives, mostly from BNP Paribas, to expand its wealth management team in India.
All nine bankers will be based in Mumbai, the company said in a statement.
The move comes five months after the financial services giant hired Puneet Matta from Swiss private bank Union Bancaire Privee (UBP) to head its wealth management unit in India.
The India expansion comes days after Bloomberg reported that Credit Suisse was laying off about 20 people in the Middle East as it restructured its wealth management operations in the region. The banking giant is also planning to cut about 500 jobs in Switzerland.
The nine executives that Credit Suisse has hired in India include Ravinder Singh, who has joined as a managing director and strategic client adviser for India onshore; and directors Ravi Malani and Brijesh Majali.
Singh and Majali report to Matta. Malani reports functionally to Carman Tsang, head of private banking equity sales for Asia Pacific, and locally to Sandipan Roy, head of products India.
Singh was earlier managing director and CEO at BNP Paribas, where he led a team of 60 professionals across India. Malani was previously head of equities at BNP Paribas and has over 25 years of experience in managing client portfolios, discretionary mandates and equity sales across domestic and foreign institutions.
Majali has over 18 years of wealth management experience with BNP Paribas and ING Vysya. In his most recent role at BNP Paribas, he was a team leader and senior private banker managing a client coverage team.
The team headed by Majali will include three relationship managers—Ashish Teli, Gautam Jain and Madhurjya Lahkar—and three assistant relationship managers with whom he has worked at BNP Paribas.
“India is a key growth market for Credit Suisse… With a strong wealth management team on board with us, we have now deepened and cemented our unique position in this market,” said Benjamin Cavalli, head of private banking for South Asia at the firm.
