The ratings on Credit Suisse Group (CSG) reflect the combination of strong franchises in core group activities including private banking, investment banking, asset management, and Swiss domestic banking; strong profitability; good capitalization; and sound asset quality. The ratings also reflect CSG's historically above-average volatility of income and profits, and lower-than-average--although improving--profit margins in its asset manager and investment bank, offset by a strong private bank. Standard&Poor's Ratings Services considers that management initiatives to improve group integration, greater strategic stability, together with improvements in its profitability, risk profile, and capitalization mean that CSG is structurally far more robust than a few years ago, and has the potential to improve further. CSG is one of the world's largest financial groups,
