Credit Suisse’s executives say that its results confirm the success of its strategy of developing an integrated bank as a platform for global growth.

The executive board of Credit Suisse is today meeting with investors and financial analysts in Zurich to update them on its plans for global growth and to provide further details on the revenue improvements and cost synergies in the integrated bank.

Oswald Grübel, CEO of Credit Suisse, said, “The creation of an integrated bank and the sale of Winterthur means that we have a clear strategic focus on the growth of our banking business. We already have a leading presence in Europe and North America, as well as in rapidly developing emerging markets such as Brazil, Mexico, China, Russia and the Middle East.”

“We will continue to leverage our strong position as an integrated bank in our existing markets and we will target new high-growth regions throughout the world. We plan to achieve this primarily through organic growth, but also through selected smaller acquisitions and partnerships,” he explained

“We believe that Credit Suisse is one of the few truly integrated global banks, and our business model enables us to meet the sophisticated requirements of institutional and private clients across the world. The demand for our integrated offering of banking solutions is increasing rapidly in today’s global economy,” Grübel added.

“Our integrated model not only provides a great platform for growth, it also enables us to generate siginificant operating efficiencies, increase the scale of our business and provide the cash flow and capital to fund our growth plans. Today, Credit Suisse has the strongest capital base in its history and we are pleased that we have the requisite resources to grow our business, while, at the same time, returning capital to our shareholders,” he concluded.

That return of capital will take place via both buybacks and dividends. The bank said that at its annual general meeting on May 4, Credit Suisse Group will ask its shareholders to approve a share buyback program of up to 8 billion Swiss francs over three years. The current CHF 6 billion share buyback program is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2007. Credit Suisse Group will also propose a dividend of CHF 2.24 per share for the financial year 2006 and a par value reduction of CHF 0.46 per share to its shareholders.