Credit Suisse Names Equities Head Abbasi as Chief of Asia-Pacific Business
Credit Suisse Group AG, Switzerland’s second-biggest bank, appointed Osama Abbasi as chief executive officer of its Asia-Pacific business.
Abbasi, 42, will replace Kai Nargolwala on Oct. 1, the Zurich-based bank said in an e-mailed statement today. Abbasi, who currently heads the equities department of Credit Suisse’s investment bank in the region, will stay in Hong Kong.
“Osama has a strong track record as one of our most talented business leaders and will bring great energy and focus to his new role,” Credit Suisse CEO Brady Dougan said in the statement. The region is a “key growth market,” he said.
Credit Suisse’s core pretax profit from Asia-Pacific dropped 73 percent to 141 million francs ($140 million) in the first half of this year. The region’s contribution to overall revenue at the bank last year was smaller than at rivals including UBS AG, Deutsche Bank AG and Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
Abbasi joined Credit Suisse Financial Products, the investment bank’s former derivatives unit, in 1996 from Bankers Trust and holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.
Nargolwala, 60, will become Asia-Pacific chairman and relocate to Singapore, the bank said. He was the head of credit risk at Standard Chartered Plc, before joining Credit Suisse in 2008.
Abbasi will be succeeded as head of regional equities by Ali Naqvi, who has been co-head of Asia Pacific cash equities and head of sales for non-Japan Asia across all equity products, according to an internal memo confirmed by Adam Harper, a Credit Suisse spokesman in Hong Kong. Naqvi, 43, who joined the bank in 1998 as a telecommunications research analyst, will report to Bob Jain and Tony Ehinger, and regionally to Abbasi.
To contact the reporters on this story: Elena Logutenkova in Zurich at elogutenkova@bloomberg.net
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