Fidelity and Credit Suisse team up for easier access to IPOs

Investor interest in initial public offerings has sparked a new partnership between Fidelity and Credit Suisse AG that will give millions of investors and advisers greater access to both IPOs and follow-on equity offerings. The agreement gives Credit Suisse access to Fidelity's millions of retail brokerage customers as well as investors working with advisers through Fidelity's RIA, correspondent broker-dealer and family office clients. A Fidelity survey of 2,500 affluent and high-net-worth clients indicated they had significant interest in IPOs, with 50% currently buying or open to investing in IPOs. “Providing a breadth of product to our client base is our focus,” said Brian Conroy, president of Fidelity Capital Markets, adding that Fidelity serves 10,000 advisers who in turn serve four million investors. As of 2013, Fidelity Institutional Wealth Services ranked third in the number of RIA custody clients with more than 3,000. In the first half of this year, Credit Suisse ranked second in IPOs globally while ranking first in long-term IPO performance, according to Dealogic. Fidelity previously had a relationship with Deutsche Bank for IPOs, according to a Fidelity spokeswoman.