Credit Suisse expands Pune centre

Pune, October 4, 2007 - Credit Suisse today announced the expansion of its Center of Excellence (CoE) in Pune into an additional new facility at the Wipro Business Park.

The bank will occupy three floors in Wipro's newest building, providing an additional 1,400 seats - equivalent to 150% more space.

In the ten months since it opened, the Pune Center of Excellence has become the fastest growing of the bank's four Centers of Excellence recruiting over 750 qualified staff to support its IT, Financial Accounting, Operations and Knowledge Processing functions.

Today, the Pune CoE together with the bank's CoE in Singapore provides over 35% of the bank's global IT support.

Nick Bloom, Credit Suisse's Global Head of Center of Excellence reinforced the bank's commitment to the region and highlighted the unique partnership Credit Suisse entered into with Wipro, one of India's leading IT and outsourcing company.

"Our partnership with Wipro allowed us to quickly establish the CoE in Pune, providing us with local support and attracting the majority of the staff we required."

To accommodate the growing operation, the bank will expand into a new facility on the Wipro Campus this month. The bank expects to add 300 new roles in the next few months, bringing the total staff numbers in Pune to 1,000 by the year end.

Bloom said the bank will increase the number of Business Processing roles will commence Knowledge Processing functions this month initially supporting the bank's global equities and client centricity teams.

"We have been impressed with the calibre of qualified staff we have been able to hire which has enabled us to deploy a significant number of roles and functions to the center."

Bloom emphasised the Pune CoE was a great place for employees to develop a career with the bank.

"Candidates are attracted to work for Credit Suisse because of the variety of roles supporting all spectrums of the bank. We also see our operation in Pune providing us with a pipeline of talent for our other offices."

The CoE program is a key strategic initiative for Credit Suisse, designed to improve client services by deploying resources, building new infrastructure globally and driving change in the operating model for the bank. The bank has four CoE's the other centers are located in Singapore, Raleigh Durham, North Carolina and Wroclaw, Poland.