Credit Suisse is bulking up its Australian banking business, boosting headcount by more than 10 per cent even as the global firm plans to cut about 6000 jobs from its business.  
Speaking from the 19th annual Credit Suisse Asian Investment Conference in Hong Kong, the biggest annual event of its kind, Credit Suisse Australia's chief executive, John Knox, said the local operation has added 50 jobs this year as it expands its wealth management capabilities.
"We've hired quite a number of private banking relationship managers in Australia this year, our overall headcount for Australia this year is up by 50, totalling just under 400," Mr Knox said. 
It comes at a time when the firm's biggest competitor, UBS, is withdrawing its wealth management business in Australia. 
Credit Suisse lured two bankers from UBS at the end of last year, Michael Stock who is head of investment banking and capital markets, and Simon Cox. 
At the start of this week's conference in Hong Kong, participants were asked to "choose one market in Asia Pacific that you are most overweight". 
Australia came in at number two, with 14 per cent of the vote, after India at 18 per cent. It's quite a turnaround from last year, when Australia was voted the market in which people were most underweight.
This result delighted Mr Knox. 
"There is still the perception globally that Australia is a resources economy. People are surprised by the resilience and the strength in the domestic economy," despite the end of the mining boom, Mr Knox told Fairfax Media at the event. 
Sydney's economy was the strongest it's been for a decade if not longer, he said, and Melbourne remained strong. 
Mr Knox, who marks one year as chief executive in   May, having taken over from Rob Stewart, is forging on with the expansion of Credit Suisse in Australia at a time when many competitors are pulling back. 
He declined to put a number to the local business' growth targets, but said Australia was a beneficiary of the capital being allocated to Asia by the Swiss-based bank, the area it has earmarked as the growth channel as chief executive Tidjane Thiam pulls back its investment banking business.
It also comes at a tough time for Credit Suisse's global business, which posted a net loss of 2.9 billion Swiss Francs ($4 billion), its first full-year loss since 2008 last year.
Mr Knox admitted the first quarter was a tough time for investment banking deals, but the firm was beefing up its private wealth offering to tap into Australian investors, including the large swathe of investors on the verge of retirement, that are looking to grow returns in an anaemic return environment in the Australian investment landscape. 
He also foresaw a strong pipeline for merger and acquisition deals this year, including the $12 billion Asciano acquisition, the biggest public deal in Australia in five years.
Vanessa Desloires travelled to Hong Kong as a guest of Credit Suisse.