Credit Suisse expanding and recruiting in South Africa

15 July 2010

2 minute read

Credit Suisse expanding and recruiting in South Africa

It is the biggest rumour in town: Credit Suisse is apparently about to end its long-standing brokerage joint venture with Standard Bank in order to go it alone in South Africa and hire its own staff.

"The rumours are rife regarding the imminent ending of the JV between Credit Suisse and Standard Bank," says Phryne Williams, director of Capital Assignments, a financial services recruiting firm.

The JV, called Credit Suisse Standard Securities, started in 2006 and "was an agreement that had a time period attached to it," according to Jacko Maree, Standard Bank's CEO. It was due to expire in 2011 but according to well-placed sources the Zurich-based bank has decided to end it a year early.

No official announcements have been made and both banks are officially not commenting.

"We do have plans to expand our franchise in Africa with South Africa as a base," says a Credit Suisse source in Johannesburg who wants to remain anonymous. "It is a move consistent with our strategy of expanding in emerging markets and we have high expectations of Africa."

"The news about Credit Suisse ending their brokerage JV with Standard Bank is by no means official so I do not have any authority to really comment on this," says Janene Brown, consultant at Anton Apps recruitment firm in Johannesburg. "However, it is inevitable that joint ventures such as these come to an end and the impact on the recruitment industry will depend on how aggressively they wish to grow their African presence and also the scale of the growth." Recruitment experts say there already is strong competition for top talent among banks.

Many international banks operate brokerages in South Africa, including Deutsche Bank, Hsbc, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and BofA Merrill Lynch, which has been rebuilding its team. Other players include Russia's Renaissance Capital, which this week received regulatory consent and the vote of 78% of shareholders and was therefore able to complete its acquisition of BJM Securities, the brokerage business of Barnard Jacobs Mellet Group in South Africa.

AUTHORNicol Degli Innocenti

Insider Comment

Ab
Abie
16 September 2010
The best move Standard Bank could have made - CS is an unreliable partner and seemingly remains unreliable to commitment real investment and Capital to South Africa or the local labour force
The legislative and Regulatory bodies looks closely at their Employment / Recruitment policies and biased (skewed) preference given to foreign staff that would have been retrenched in their Global Processing Centres / Locals offices. However, unfair Labour Practice and recruitment polices are adopted and manipulate to attracted the staff now employed by SBSA - where are the ordinary SA communities beniiting for their investment?
The organisation is renowned for withdrawing from the Country and where FN should not be placed preference in the Jurisdiction where Legislation does not favour over citizens, and therefore awards Foreigners less points in the Department of Labour reporting and recognizances a SA local in terms of the lBEE law.
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