Credit Suisse plans to launch Think Suisse financial services portals across Europe.
Credit Suisse (CS) can rightly boast its first mover advantage. It is targeting an untapped market segment: sophisticated, cosmopolitan consumers who are keen to manage their own, considerable wealth. The minimum balance to open an account will be E1000 (GBP600) but clients will generally have around GBP30,000 in managed assets. Portals will soon permit dealing on 15 exchanges and allow deposits in four different currencies.
Despite the lure of Europe’s mass affluent citizens, the proportion of that group that is technologically able and financially sophisticated enough to need pan-European trading and multi-currency accounts is relatively small. Only a percentage of them will have the time, ability and inclination to manage their own assets.
But will the service offer enough to satisfy the increasingly choosy mass affluent client? News and analysis will be highly regarded, with the excellent pedigree of CSFB equity research, but at present that is as far as it goes. Until next month the site is information-only, and even on product launch, services will only be available from four providers, hardly enough to guarantee the best-of-breed products that its target client base craves.
With Merrill Lynch HSBC and Morgan Online hot on its heels, Credit Suisse has worked hard to be first to market, presumably aiming to lock-in clients before competitors’ services are launched. With the other high street banks and the more traditional private client providers also looking for a piece of the action, the market place for mass affluent wealth management services will become increasingly cramped, and only the best services will flourish. Its target audience is more fickle than the average consumer and won’t hesitate to take business to another player. The question for Credit Suisse is whether Think Suisse can really match up.
