The Swiss bank said this was the sixth consecutive quarter of year-on-year (YoY) profit growth and the highest quarterly adjusted pre-tax income for the last 11 quarters.
In the trading report on Wednesday, Credit Suisse stated that net new assets into its wealth management division rose 20% to CHF14.4bn, the fastest rate in seven years. This took its total assets under management to a record CHF776bn (c.£565bn), up 9% YoY.
The bank’s wealth management-related businesses generated CHF1.3bn of adjusted pre-tax income, an increase of 61% or approximately CHF500m in three years.
The firm said its wealth management and IBCM (investment banking and capital markets) businesses now account for approximately 80% of its core profitability, nearly double its contribution three years ago.
Chief executive Tidjane Thiam said: “We have reshaped Credit Suisse in less than three years, growing our less capital-consumptive wealth management and IBCM businesses and right-sizing our markets activities, while better aligning our skillset to service the needs of our ultra high-net worth clients.”
Markets were pleasantly surprised by the bank’s first quarter figures, sending the share price up 4.9% during early morning trading.
Analysts at JP Morgan Cazenove remarked that the results were “very solid” and “better than expected”.
“The Credit Suisse stock price should perform well with potential for some upgrades in EPS by consensus in low single digits,” it added.
The bank also reported its lowest quarterly costs in five years as it heads into the final stages of its restructuring programme.
“We have now completed nine quarters of our 12-quarter restructuring program,” said Thiam. “2016, the first year of our programme, was a year of deep strategic change and restructuring. 2017 was a year of stabilisation and consolidation of the business, and we had planned 2018 to be a year of acceleration in our performance.
“With these first quarter results, we got off to a good start in our third and final year of restructuring, and we are looking ahead to the future with confidence in our new business model and in our execution capabilities.”
