Credit Suisse Group AG (NYSE:CS) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

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And important to note here is as well that we hardly lost any client. I think that is also important. That shows you something about what I said before in terms of the relationship which we may have with our clients. Seems to be, for me, very important. In terms of the cost and, Dixit, you might add, a couple of points from my side. With respect to the CHF1.2 billion target, which we stick to, as you are aware of, for 2023, 80% of this cost reduction has been initiated and this in execution already in the fourth quarter. So, I think that is something very positive, which you need to bear in mind. So, you will see the effects coming in, obviously, quarter-by-quarter as we speak in 2023. To better understand, I would say, the overall program, I mean we are doing in forcefully, as I said, everything which we would do in that situation to reduce the cost with the more, call it, classical measures like as we were alluding to getting more efficient, therefore, leading in less headcount, reducing contractors, consultant spend, and there is room to go.

This is absolutely no question, we are looking at the usual things which you apply, like how many levels in the organization, how many direct reports, all these kind of things we are working on. Having said that, and I’m saying that because this is what I would think is, call it, the first phase to get into new Credit Suisse. And then, obviously, and we are working in parallel on that one, is that we are asking ourselves and developing our new operating model for new Credit Suisse, and that needs some more work over the next few months. But I think that is important for the second phase of cost reduction, because the new operating model in itself must be designed in a way that is much more agile and much more simpler. That’s why we talked about that in connection with new Credit Suisse several times.

Dixit Joshi: Ulrich, just to add, I mean, on those — and Magdalena, good questions. I think as we reduce complexity and as we simplify the company as part of the move towards the new Credit Suisse, I think that creates larger efficiencies for us, of course, that we need to crystallize. The second point I’d make is we will keep focusing on optimizing our legal entity structure, which also has upside for our cost base. And the third point I’d make is that I mentioned in my remarks that our cost targets are very much on a constant perimeter basis. And so, for example, as we progress towards the final close of the Securitized Products transaction, we will, of course, once that’s closed, also then adjust our targets accordingly.

So, I think what you’re going to see from us as a management team is that we will leave no stone unturned. We have levers at our disposal to drive cost, and we’re, hence, confident, as you can hear from myself and Ulrich’s remarks, that we’re confident on delivering on the cost target.

Magdalena Stoklosa: Thank you very much.

Operator: The next question comes from the line of Jeremy Sigee with BNP Paribas Exane. Please go ahead.

Jeremy Sigee: Thank you very much. Good morning. Can I just kind of clarify further the outflow and the flow situation? And sort of two questions very specifically on that. You said that the 4Q outflows were two-thirds in October. Could you give us an idea of the remaining one-third, how was that split between November and December? Was it sort of even across both of those months? That’s my first question. And then, the second question, you said — again, it’s on a similar topic. You said that you’d had further outflows in Wealth Management in January, but at a reduced level. I just wondered how we should interpret what you mean by reduced level. Is that relative to 15% in 4Q or relative to where you were in December? That would be very helpful just to understand what you mean by a reduced level of outflows.

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