Crédit Suisse Asset Management has appointed Claudia Blumenthal as its new German head of retail and institutional fund distribution, effective immediately.

Blumenthal, 42, replaces Hansjörg Herzog, who stepped down as CSAM’s German chief executive, which included responsibility for fund distribution and institutional marketing, on March 1. Herzog is now head of fund distribution for Germany, Switzerland and Austria at CSAM in Zurich.

Blumenthal will also continue in her previous post as head of retail sales, reporting to Philipp Vorndran, Herzog’s successor as CSAM’s German CEO.

Blumenthal will now be supported by Barbara Diaz, who took over responsibility for German institutional marketing from Herzog.

Last week, CSAM said inflows to its institutional funds in Germany, known as Spezialfonds, amounted to €442.8m in 2004, bringing the total volume for these funds to €4.4bn.

By the end of 2006, CSAM aims to raise its Spezialfonds volume to €5.5bn, partly by winning more mandates from German companies wanting to create contractual trust agreements (CTAs).

Under a CTA, pensions liabilities in the form of book reserves are removed from a company’s balance sheet and consolidated into a fund backed up by cash. While expensive to build, CTAs are recognised by international rating agencies as an effective way of fully funding pension liabilities.