0 Never expected that Credit Suisse (" Credit Suisse ")'s ambitious global strategic restructuring plan would encounter the first threshold for the new crown epidemic.
On January 17th local time, Credit Suisse announced that Chairman Antonio Horta-Osório decided to resign after being investigated by the board of directors. The inducement of the board of directors' investigation was that Antonio himself violated the prevention and control measures of the new crown epidemic twice. Under pressure from public opinion and internal investigation, he finally decided to resign.
Antonio joined Credit Suisse in April last year and was entrusted with the important task of leading Credit Suisse to get rid of scandals and rejuvenate. However, the global strategic restructuring plan he led was forced to resign after just two months of its announcement, which undoubtedly brought a hint of uncertainty to Credit Suisse's future strategic direction.
"expensive" Wimbledon tennis match
At the end of November last year, Antonio admitted for the first time that he had violated the new crown epidemic prevention and control regulations of Switzerland . After arriving in Switzerland, he left Switzerland within three days after he arrived.
If the Swiss authorities determine that Antonio violates epidemic prevention regulations, he may face a fine of up to CHF 5,000 (about 34,728 yuan). Although the fine is only a small bullshit for Antonio, Credit Suisse, which is already involved in multiple scandals, cannot afford more negative news. This violation prompted Credit Suisse's board of directors to conduct an internal investigation into Antonio.
Results, the investigation also found that Antonio violated local epidemic prevention regulations in the UK in July last year to watch Wimbledon tennis. According to the UK's requirements at the time, it was necessary to quarantine for 10 days after arriving in the UK from Switzerland, but Antonio did not comply with the regulations.
According to British media reports, violating epidemic prevention regulations in the UK is a criminal offence, and violators may face a minimum fine of 1,000 pounds (about 8,685 yuan). If repeated crimes are committed, the amount of the fine will be as high as 10,000 pounds (about 86,854 yuan), and in serious cases, they may also face imprisonment.
Although Antonio's violation of epidemic prevention regulations was a personal act, the situation was quite embarrassing for Credit Suisse - the chairman himself, who was poached from Lloyds and should have led the bank out of the whirlpool of scandal, created new negative news, which may trigger more doubts from stakeholders such as regulators, shareholders, and customers.
In Credit Suisse's statement, Antonio expressed regret that some of his personal actions have brought difficulties to Credit Suisse. "I believe that at the critical moment, my resignation is in the interests of banks and stakeholders."
Chairman of the Risk Committee took over as Chairman
At the same time Antonio resigned, the board of directors decided to appoint Axel Lehmann, chairman of the Risk Committee and member of the board of directors, to take over as chairman immediately, and will formally nominate him as chairman at the shareholders' meeting at the end of April.
Axel joined Credit Suisse from its competitor UBS (UBS). He was just elected as a member of the board of directors in October last year and served as Chief Operating Officer of UBS and a member of the Risk Committee. Prior to UBS, Axel served in Zurich Insurance for nearly 20 years, responsible for its operations in Europe and North America, group IT systems, and served as chief risk officer.
"The new strategy has set the right direction for us," Axel said. Credit Suisse will continue to strengthen risk awareness in an all-round way and continue to implement new strategic measures.
As the second largest bank in Switzerland, Credit Suisse has been deeply involved in negative events such as Archegos liquidation and Greensill bankruptcy in the past year. It is urgent to clear up historical issues and focus on business development priorities through a new global strategy.
In March last year, Archegos, a hedge fund under hedge fund manager Bill Hwang, broke its position. Under high leverage, its nominal risk exposure reached as high as US$80 billion. Credit Suisse was also involved in this storm. In the first two quarters of last year, the bank set aside a total of 25.024 billion Swiss francs (approximately RMB 34.9 billion) in bad debt losses due to the liquidation incident.
Immediately afterwards, British supply chain financing company Greensill went bankrupt, affecting four supply chain financial funds under Credit Suisse that invested in the bonds of the company or its affiliates, and triggering an investigation into Credit Suisse by Swiss regulators. At present, the Greensill bankruptcy incident has not been completely resolved.
In early November last year, under the leadership of Antonio, Credit Suisse officially announced its global strategic restructuring plan, decided to return to its main business of wealth management, reduce investment banking business , withdraw from the institutional financing (prime service) business, and increase investment in the Asia-Pacific region, including further expanding its business scale in mainland China, and focusing on developing businesses including consulting, equity capital markets and stock trading businesses.
This article is from China Fund News
