Credit Suisse offers bankers bonuses to stay as defections mount

[ZURICH] Credit Suisse is handing selective payments to senior bankers after recent scandals including the collapse of Archegos Capital Management hurt stock-based rewards, leading to growing exodus of executives to other firms.

The Zurich-based bank is offering retention bonuses to some managing directors and other senior staff in the investment bank, according to people familiar with the matter. The process is being managed discreetly to avoid divisions within businesses where some are receiving payouts and others nothing, the people said.

The latest departures are two senior New York-based employees in the investment bank, Andrew Conway and Charles Hadid, who have left for Bank of America and Morgan Stanley respectively, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

Credit Suisse is in one of its most difficult periods since the great financial crisis, rocked by the dual Archegos and Greensill Capital blow-ups this year which imposed multi-billion dollar losses and further dented its reputation. New chairman Antonio Horta-Osorio has pledged a thorough review and said the two crises went beyond any he'd lived through over three-and-a-half decades in the industry.

The bank declined to comment on the bonuses.

Competitors are viewing Switzerland's second largest bank as fertile hunting ground for talent that otherwise would be hard to poach, people familiar with the matter said in recent weeks.

The risk of departures is extending beyond just the investment bank, as relationship managers to wealthy clients also fight to reassure customers.

Credit Suisse began weighing retention bonuses amid a number of departures of high-profile dealmakers over the past couple months.

John Pilant, global head of services investment banking left for Truist Financial Corp., while financial services head Alejandro Przygoda left for Jefferies Financial Group along with at least three colleagues.

That followed the recent departures of at least four other members of the financial institutions group to competitors including Barclays, Bank of America and Goldman Sachs.

BLOOMBERG