Carsten Stoehr has returned to Credit Suisse to help provide a gamut of financial services to Asia’s bulging cohort of billionaires.
Stoehr will report directly to Helman Sitohang, Credit Suisse's regional chief executive officer, and be based in Hong Kong in his new role as head of financing Asia Pacific, a spokeswoman for the bank said, confirming the contents of an internal memo seen by FinanceAsia.
Credit Suisse is in the midst of root-and-branch reform to refocus the business on higher margin high net worth individuals and entrepreneurs. It is banking on this approach to help double its profits in the region by 2018.
So far the revised strategy is bearing fruit. Credit Suisse reported record nine-month results for Asia Pacific, with revenues rising 17% year-on-year to CHF3 billion ($2.95 billion) and pre-tax income up 48% at CHF1.1 billion. The bank's full-year results are set for release on February 4.
A long-time veteran of Credit Suisse, Stoehr re-joins the bank from Standard Chartered, where the half-Japanese, half-German banker was one of StanChart’s most experienced fixed income executives.
Under Stoehr, Credit Suisse will bring together the bank's emerging markets financing, equity share-backed lending, corporate banking, and private banking structured lending services to form one Asia-Pacific financing team. This unified group will aim to provide a centralised structuring, risk management, and syndication platform for financing ultra high net worth, entrepreneur, and corporate clients.
Brief StanChart stint
Stoehr was most recently global head of financial market sales at StanChart, responsible for the distribution of all financial markets products globally, spanning foreign exchange, rates, credit, and commodities.
He joined the UK-based but Asia-focused bank in June 2012 as its global head of capital markets, before taking on the larger financial markets sales role.
Stoehr has a long affinity with Asia's financial markets. He originally located to Hong Kong with Credit Suisse First Boston (as it was then called) at the end of 1999 to take over its Asia debt capital markets coverage, where he helped to establish the bank’s credentials on a set of prominent international bond issues.
He then shifted to Europe in early 2003 to become its head of Europe DCM. Stoehr performed well in that role, overseeing a turnaround in the business.
Credit Suisse then moved Stoehr to Japan in 2004 to run its fixed income sales and trading operations in the country.
Stoehr was Credit Suisse’s head of Asia-Pacific fixed income when he left the bank in November 2011.
