CA Indosuez (Switzerland) SA - 2018 Annual Report

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Activity report 2018

Corporate and Investment Banking

Commercial Banking Jean-Paul Kaouza, Head of Commercial Banking

The Bank’s favourable sales trend witnessed last year with Corporate clients grew stronger in 2018, underpinned by rising commodity prices in the first three quarters of 2018 tied to economic growth of nearly 4%. However, the end of the year was marked by a sudden downturn in the commodities markets and, more broadly, international trade, which translated into a period of growth of only 3% due to trade tensions and political uncertainty. The results delivered this year have demonstrated the relevance of our new organisation in terms of sales, support functions and control functions. All the challenges identified in 2018 were successfully met: revenues were up sharply, credit risks were fully under control, a major training effort was carried out, especially in the area of Compliance in all its aspects, thereby maintaining a high degree of expertise within our teams and, lastly, operating costs were kept under control. We will have to face other challenges in the future in a temporarily poorly performing market, with low volatility combined with moderate growth. These objectives for 2019 include growing our business, strengthening a number of controls weighing down our processes, automating these controls, ensuring that our solutions are competitive against a backdrop of intense competition and managing scarce resources. We will overcome these challenges through strengthened cooperation with CA CIB and Crédit Agricole Group.

Coverage of large corporates Franck Bervillé, Head of Coverage

Business with large Swiss and international companies substantially improved in 2018 compared to the previous year, mainly due to large syndicated financing deals, Trade Finance, bond issues and Equity Capital Markets.