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00:00MARK COLVIN The Middle East for US and international management at Credit Suisse is a very relevant region to growth region . It's my largest emerging market region and transfer wealth management covers Latin America Europe emerging Europe and Middle East. We've actually seen the first half growth in our business. The growth has been double digit on the revenue side but also in the Astra emulation side. So from where we sit we've actually not seen an impact on our business in the first half of the year. Short term we do see challenges in the Middle East. But long term we actually have a positive view towards the Middle East and we are continuing to optimize our resources within the region and actually invest within the region. Can you give a few specifics on that to me you're looking to expand in terms of relationship managers here. If so by how many of this sort of expansion plans. So overall we are growing our coverage base across international wealth management material part of that is actually going to be going into the Middle East . That is today but also in specific onshore locations we're going onshore in Saudi Arabia. And so there are much multiple elements that we're actually investing in in terms of coverage booking center but also specific regional product and we're investing capital within this region by deploying capital to our balance sheet to clients through lending initiatives and financing to our clients. How big an opportunity is Saudi Arabia for you given the very interesting transformation that's going through the country right now. If you look at the Middle East we see UAE Saudi and Kuwait as very interesting Wolf margin markets. Aside from these emerging markets we also see cut and Bush ran as interesting opportunities and we're exploring all of them Saudi. Clearly is a very large wealth natural market. If you just step back and look at the Middle East more generally in 2015 I think we had about more than three and thirty thousand millionaires that's projected to grow to about five or ten thousand. So that is growth trajectory that is of course attractive to us and clearly that's a clientele that we would like to bank. Okay. Can you talk a little bit generally about fees in the region. Is there pressure on fees right now generally across the banking industry. Like in any of the service industry you do see revenue pressure. You've seen within financial wealth management Credit Suisse in the first half is that we've actually been able to increase revenues that has actually come more through our but the way we've deployed balance sheet how we've optimized deposits but also our lending balances we've seen flattish recurring fees we've seen increasing management fees within asset management and the transactional fees have actually been a bit more challenged from a volume perspective but also a bit from a margin perspective . What could you go through perhaps a bit about the changing profile of the wealth management clients here in the Middle East are you seeing different are you seeing changes. Younger entrepreneurs. I think what I personally like a lot about the Middle East is the young entrepreneurial drive and entrepreneurial spirit that's very much in line with the heritage of Credit Suisse of for entrepreneurialism and supporting entrepreneurs. We're a bank that's been here for six years. We were founded by an entrepreneur and this is something that is very much in tune with our heritage. So the entrepreneurs segment the Middle East is a very sophisticated segment is a segment that we want to support and service across the life cycle of a relationship. What does that mean an entrepreneur in some instances requires financing which which we are able to do as has his or her international partner. On the other hand there are elements of situations where there are liquidity events or excess liquidity that a client might have and looks for investment opportunities which we provide which are international investment opportunities. And last but not least we also support clients from diversifying their wealth thinking about an entrepreneur who has more concentration in specific entities or specific businesses where we can clearly help our clients diversify their wealth and optimize our portfolio. To what degree is the private banking business helping drive investment banking mandates in the Middle East . Overall we work very closely with our investment bank. My colleagues in the Ibex be my partners on the XP of Credit Suisse . We work as a team the Middle East of course shows a lot of opportunities in terms of investment banking asset management and corporate banking business. Our goal is to be able to cover our clients holistically across those disciplines. Our Wealth Management franchise actually provides us the base and also the regular income that we require to be able to be present and invest in relationships with our clients to actually be there when a client of ours requires that respect so from that perspective is very complimentary and very synergistic .

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Credit Suisse Follows the Money to Expand in the Mideast

Credit Suisse's International Wealth Management CEO Iqbal Khan talks to Bloomberg's Dale Crofts about the bank's plans to expand in the Middle East on "Bloomberg Markets Middle East."

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