(Updates with Credit Suisse Japan earnings in fourth paragraph.)

Nov. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Credit Suisse Group AG’s Japan Chief Executive Officer Paul Kuo will step down on Jan. 1, according to a company memo obtained by Bloomberg News.

Olivier Thiriet, who heads the Zurich-based company’s Asia- Pacific cash equities operations, will replace Kuo, the bank said in a separate memo. Thiriet will oversee private banking, investment banking and asset management businesses in Japan, according to the memo.

Kuo, who joined the company almost 18 years ago, will remain with the bank until the end of April to help with the management transition, the memo said. Credit Suisse, Switzerland’s second-biggest bank, is expanding its Japan operations including a 25 percent boost in Japanese stock coverage this year to catch up with foreign rivals.

The bank, which employed 591 people in Tokyo at the end of March, narrowed the loss in Japan last fiscal year to 9.9 billion yen ($128 million) from 20.7 billion yen a year earlier.

Separately, Taiji Okusu, head of investment banking at Credit Suisse in Japan, left the firm last month, Isamu Kajino, a spokesman for the Swiss bank in Tokyo, said today.

--Editor: James Gunsalus, Linus Chua

To contact the reporter on this story: Takahiko Hyuga in Tokyo at thyuga@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Chitra Somayaji at csomayaji@bloomberg.net