Credit Suisse announces new members of executive board

[ZURICH] Credit Suisse announced a wide-ranging overhaul of its executive board on Monday (Dec 13) as the Swiss bank seeks to move on from a horrendous year where it has been battered by a stream of controversies and losses.

Switzerland's second-biggest bank said it was making Francesco De Ferrari CEO of its wealth-management division and interim CEO of Europe, Middle East and Africa.

Christian Meissner, CEO of the Investment Bank division, has been appointed CEO of the Americas region.

Helman Sitohang and Andre Helfenstein have been appointed as CEOs of the Asia-Pacific region and Switzerland regions, respectively. Mark Hannam has been named as head of Internal Audit, the bank added.

Credit Suisse also announced a new board of directors model structure to enhance the effectiveness and governance of its subsidiary boards. The lender has seen its share price drop by nearly a quarter during 2021 after suffering heavy losses from the collapse of US family office Archegos, and is also seeing client losses from the collapse of supply-chain finance company Greensill.

It has also been reprimanded over allegations that it snooped on former top wealth-management executive Iqbal Khan as well as being fined over bribery and fraud charges relating to the US$2 billion Mozambican corruption scandal.

In the latest controversy, the bank admitted new chairman Antonio Horta-Osorio, who has made compliance and risk management a top priority, broke Covid-19 quarantine rules.

Horta-Osorio said the appointments completed the bank's new divisional and regional structure, and would help deliver the bank's strategy.

"Risk management will be at the core of all our actions, with the board of directors and the executive board together driving a culture that reinforces the importance of accountability and responsibility across the entire bank," the chairman said.

REUTERS