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Credit Suisse Cuts Senior Banker Jobs in Hedge Fund Unit

Credit Suisse Cuts Senior Banker Jobs in Hedge Fund Unit

(Bloomberg) -- Credit Suisse Group AG has been reorganizing its prime brokerage unit, cutting some jobs while hiring selectively.

This week, the Swiss bank pruned another seven positions from the New York desk that caters to hedge funds, according to a person familiar with the matter who requested anonymity.

Tony Bertoldo and Justin Carey are among the senior bankers who are said to be affected by the cuts, the person said. Others affected include Philippe Hatstadt and Ralane Bonn, the person said. It isn’t yet clear if the seven will leave or find another position at the bank. A spokesman for Credit Suisse declined to comment, while the people in question didn’t reply to Bloomberg requests for comment.

Prime brokers provide services such as settling trades and lending money and securities to hedge funds, and Credit Suisse’s prime unit is part of the bank’s equities division. Switzerland’s second-largest lender is in the final stretch of a three-year overhaul, upgrading its wealth-management operations, and capping capital allocation to trading-related activity.

The bank’s decision this week follows another series of high-profile exits from New York earlier this year, including Michael Wingertzahn, Gardy Berthoumieux and Indrajit Bardhan, the last of whom was global head of prime brokerage. He was replaced by Paul Galietto. Recent hires at the division include Ryan Nelson from UBS Group AG to be global head of prime financing.

Like other investment banks, Credit Suisse is under pressure from stricter capital requirements, and the absence of volatility often weighs on revenues. However, the bank’s Global Markets unit still contributes 26 percent to group revenue. The bank has cut thousands of jobs in London and New York, but has earmarked some areas for growth -- including leveraged finance, some areas of equities trading and a unit called Advanced Execution services led by Anthony Abenante.

A key pillar of Credit Suisse’s strategy is to align Global Markets closer to the bank’s wealth-management operations, which offers financing solutions and structured products to the rich. Against that background, Credit Suisse has also made some senior hires this year for prime finance in the Asia-Pacific region, which is separate from the global equities unit.

--With assistance from Suzy Waite and Nishant Kumar.

To contact the reporters on this story: Jan-Henrik Förster in Zurich at jforster20@bloomberg.net;Saijel Kishan in New York at skishan@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Dale Crofts at dcrofts@bloomberg.net, Keith Campbell, Paul Armstrong

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