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* CS could cut 3000 jobs from investment bank -analysts
* Push into Asia private wealth faces challenge fromincumbent UBS
* CS also lags Swiss rival in investment banking in Asia (Rewrites throughout, adds details on CS performance in Asia)
By Lisa Jucca and Steve Slater
HONG KONG/LONDON, March 12 (Reuters) - Incoming CreditSuisse boss Tidjane Thiam is expected to focus onprivate banking in Asia while aggressively cutting jobs at itsinvestment bank, as he aims to repeat the success in the regionof his old employer, Prudential.
Thiam could slash 3,000 jobs from Credit Suisse's investmentbank, or 15 percent of staff globally, and cut 150 billion Swissfrancs ($149 billion) of assets from the bank's fixed income,commodities and currencies business as part of that shift,analysts at JPMorgan said.
That may include Asia, where the former insurance executivewill find a fiercely competitive landscape, dominated bycross-town rival UBS in the wealth management spaceand increasingly crowded with aggessive local players ininvestment banking.
"Prudential's markets in Asia have been green-field,high-growth and not over-competitive," said Keith Pogson, seniorpartner for Asia-Pacific financial services at consulting firmEY.
"But in the banking system low-cost local players arebecoming stronger and stronger competitors. It's a verydifferent landscape."
Thiam takes over after current CEO Brady Dougan leaves inJune.
UBS - which shifted its focus to the region earlier - hasnearly twice the assets under managements in Asia, though CreditSuisse is starting to make significant strides there.
Last year, Asia Pacific accounted for 63 percent of all netnew wealth Credit Suisse attracted, bringing total wealthmanagement assets managed in the region to 143.5 billion Swissfrancs, confirming Asia as a main driver of growth.
By contrast, UBS's wealth management division had 269billion Swiss francs of invested assets in the region at the endof 2014.
"Asia as a subsegment, it's been a very important area ofgrowth for Credit Suisse. Even though margins tend to be lower,from a growth point of view, it's still highly attractive," saidJon Peace, a banking analyst at Nomura in London.
Credit Suisse's investment banking division in Asia Pacific,is also lagging UBS, according to Thomson Reuters data. Inadvisory rankings Credit Suisse has fallen every year since2010, from 4th place then to 15th last year and 17th in the yearto date.
In equity capital markets rankings, where Swiss rival UBShas consistently been the top-ranked player in Asia since 2010,Credit Suisse ranked 6th in 2014 and 4th in 2013, the data show.
And in debt underwriting, Credit Suisse again ranked outsidethe top 10 advisors every year since 2010.
Thiam, who contrary to Dougan has no experience ofinvestment banking, may be sufficiently detached from thebusiness to make some tough choices, bankers say.
"Asia has been a fairly difficult area for Europeaninvestment banks to make money. The investment bank is the mainquestion over the new CEO strategy," said Simon Adamson,European banking analyst at CreditSights.
"If they do decide to scale back, that would also includetheir Asia business."
($1 = 1.0044 Swiss francs) (Reporting by Lisa Jucca and Lawrence White in Hong Kong andSteve Slater in London; Editing by Louise Heavens, Greg Mahlichand Rachel Armstrong)
