History of the company/bank and archive description for Credit Suisse Group
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History of the
company/bank: |
Brief survey of CS Group history:
- 1856: Credit Suisse founded in Zurich by Alfred Escher. Credit Suisse is the oldest of Switzerland`s three big banks.
It played a decisive role in financing the industrialisation of Switzerland, including railway construction. Leading up
to the turn of the century, extends its activities into mainstream commercial banking. 1905: First branch opens in Basle.
- 1940: First foreign branch opens in New York. 1958 onwards: Major currencies become freely convertible, prompting rapid growth of international money and capital markets. Credit Suisse expands worldwide. In the seventies, Credit Suisse transforms itself from a bank serving industry and commerce to a broad-based financial services provider, active throughout the world.
- 1989: Holding structure introduced, with Credit Suisse and CS First Boston as the two largest subsidiaries of CS Holding. Two subsidiaries, Fides and Electrowatt, were brought into the holding structure, becoming sister companies of Credit Suisse. Leu Holding Ltd. which includes Zurich´s distinguished Bank Leu, and the newly formed life insurance company CS Life were later additions to the group.
- 1993: Credit Suisse takes over Swiss Volksbank, Switzerland´s fourth-largest bank. The refocusing of Swiss branch business and the integration of Swiss Volksbank into the Credit Suisse Group are successfully completed in 1995.
- 1994: New alliances with Swiss Re and Winterthur Insurance open up a wide range of insurance-related services for Credit Suisse customers.
- 1996: Credit Suisse Group announced the implementation of a forward-looking structure and far-reaching organisational changes:
- introduction of a new strategic organisation and of market and customer-driven structures
- formation of the Credit Suisse and Credit Suisse First Boston legal entities and, in particular, of four
customer-based business units
- launch of a comprehensive programme for the long-term improvement of productivity
- implementation of a forward-looking framework for the management of credit risk
- spin-off of selected non-core businesses, notably Electrowatt Ltd.
New business units of Credit Suisse Group, in operation since 1 January 1997 are as follows:
- Credit Suisse, active in Swiss domestic banking (esp. retail banking).
- Credit Suisse Private Banking, which offers private banking services worldwide.
- Credit Suisse First Boston, a globally active investment bank.
- Credit Suisse Asset Management, which provides asset management services to institutional investors.
- Winterthur Group, worldwide insurance services (since July 1997)
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| Archive description |
Brief description of CS Group Archive:
Since CS Group was established, all affiliated companies have been collecting and preserving substantial business documents and records in order to reflect its corporate past. The first steps towards a truly professional archive management and administration were made by Credit Suisse in 1991, based on a system that is being continually developed and improved. The current organisation of the archives, with its scientific approach, and the integration of a computerised archive service was set up in 1996. Since 1 January 1997, the Central Corporate Archive is reporting to the department "Dormant Accounts / Archives" of Credit Suisse Group.
The Central Corporate Archive of the Credit Suisse Group contains the historical records of a number of banks, of CS Holding and CS Group.
The principal records held in the archive relate to:
- Credit Suisse *founded 1856 (Schweizerische Kreditanstalt)
- Bank Leu *1755
- Swiss Volksbank *1869-1995 (Schweizerische Volksbank)
- Neue Aargauer Bank * 1812 (Allg. Aargauische Ersparniskasse, Aargauische Handels- und Hypothekenbank, Gewerbebank Baden)
- Schweizerische Bodenkreditanstalt *1896-1976
- Bank in Zürich * 1837-1906/1907-1982
- Bank Hofmann *1907
- Clariden Bank *1955
- Bank Heusser *1855 (bis 1955 Bank Lüscher, heute Clariden Heusser)
- Affida Bank *1934 (1998 amalgamated with bank Leu)
- Winterthur Insurance, *1875
The bank´s archive material covers the history of the banks from their founding years to the present day or to the date of their acquisition or merger, as the case may be.
As of the beginning of 1997, the records in the Central Corporate Archive took up more than 6,000 metres of shelf-space. Important parts of these records have been digitised and registered on a database.
Finding aids:
Archive plan: The historical records have been systematically classified according to an archive plan.
In most cases, this classification follows the principle of provenance (i.e. records are arranged according to the organisational unit that generated them). In special cases, classification follows the principle of pertinence (i.e. according to subject areas). The archive plan helps with first-level retrieval.
Inventory (catalogue): The inventory goes down to the single document or document group level and provides the following information: brief description of the content (title), period, size of document (quantity), form of the document. The inventory is the principal instrument for (physical and electronic) searching in the Central Corporate Archive and provides a clear overview of all historic records. The inventory is updated continually on a Web-based intranet platform.
Electronic Index (3rd level): Image-processed documents (historically relevant) can be retreived by an index (paragraph-qualified search).
Full-text search (OCR converted text) in all historical relevant documents by the search engine Eurospider.
Content-oriented finding aids:
Organisation chart showing all companies of the CS Group through its history (brief history of amalgamations).
List of all branches and the dates on which they were opened, closed or taken over.
List of the members of the Board of Directors and Executive Board along with their periods of tenure and personal particulars.
Filing of a virtual client relationship to document the history of pricing of all the products of the bank (interests and fees, marketing material etc.).
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| Publications |
- Esslinger , M. : Geschichte der Schweizerischen Kreditanstalt während der ersten 50 Jahre ihres Bestehens. Zürich 1907.
- Bleuler , Werner : Bank in Zürich 1836-1906. Zürich 1913. (hg. von der Schweizerischen Kreditanstalt)
- Jöhr , Walter Adolf : Schweizerische Kreditanstalt 1856-1956. Hundert Jahre im Dienste der schweizerischen Volkswirtschaft. Zürich 1956.
- Jöhr , Walter Adolf : Schweizerische Kreditanstalt 1856-1956. Zürich 1956. (Kurzfassung deutsch, französisch und englisch). Zürich 1956.
- Reinhardt , M.E. : Le Crédit Suisse.Son role dans l´économie zurichoise (Exposé). Zürich 1961.
- Credit Suisse (Ed.) : 125th Anniversary of Credit Suisse. An historical survey. Zürich 1981. (also in German and French)
- Vereinigung Zürcher Bahnhofstrasse : Alfred Escher (20.Feb.1819 - 6.Dez.1882). Zum Gedenken an seinen hundertsten Todestag. Zürich 1982.
- Schmid , Walter P. : Der junge Alfred Escher. Sein Herkommen und seine Welt. Zürich 1988.
- Wiget , Josef : Die SKA Schwyz und ihre Vorgeschichte. Von aristokratischen Banquiers und wirtschaftlicher Verantwortung. Zürich 1993.
- Schweizerische Kreditanstalt (Hg.) : Alfred Escher. Ausstellung in der Galerie "le point" am Hauptsitz der Schweizerischen Kreditanstalt, Paradeplatz 8. Zürich 1994. (ISBN: 3-908225-08-6)
- 175 Jahre Alfred Escher, Sonderbeilage der Neuen Zürcher Zeitung vom 17.Februar 1994.
- Baumann , Jan-Henning : Krisenbewältigung als Lernprozess. Die finanzielle Rettung der Schweizerischen Nordostbahn und ihre Folgen für die Schweizerische Kreditanstalt (1875-1880). Zürich 1993 (Separatdruck ; Original unter dem Titel: "Auf dem Weg zur Universalbank: Die Schweizerische Kreditanstalt in der Zeit der Nordostbahnkrise 1876-1879" , in: Cassis, Y. , Tanner, J. (Hg.): Banken und Kredit in der Schweiz. Zürich 1993.
- Credit Suisse, in: Handbook on the History of European Banks. Hg. von der European Association for Banking History (EABH). Frankfurt 1994, S.1089-1093.
- Siegenthaler , Hansjörg : Das Phänomen Alfred Escher, Interview mit Prof. Siegenthaler anlässlich des 175-jährigen Geburtstages von A. Escher (20.2.1819), in: bulletin SKA, Nr. 1/1994. S. 44 - 47.
- Jung, Joseph: Von der Schweizerischen Kreditanstalt zur Credit Suisse Group.
Eine Bankengeschichte, Zürich 2000 (NZZ-Verlag)-
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| Conditions of use |
Rules on use of the archives:
In the interests of banking and business secrecy as well as of academic research, CS Group has drawn up a set of user rules which regulate access to archival material. Following the practice of public archives, specific records are subject in principle to a 50-year holding period.
The laws on banking confidentiality require the bank not to disclose information regarding its banking business with its customers and entitle the bank´s clients to demand that the bank observe confidentiality. In contrast to industrial or business confidentiality, banking confidentiality is practised at the discretion of the customer, not the bank. The bank´s customer may release the bank from its obligation to maintain confidentiality.
The decision to grant external offices access to the records will depend on relevant legal provisions, holding periods and the possible effects on the bank´s business interests. In principle, access may be denied without any reason for this being given.
Address of CS Group Archives:
Credit Suisse Group
Central Corporate Archives (GHDF)
P.O. Box 1
CH - 8070 Zürich
Switzerland
Phone: +41 / 1 / 333 98 33
Fax: +41 / 1 / 332 63 11
e-mail: juerg.hagmann@csg.ch |
