Credit Suisse had more than US$20b exposure to Archegos investments: WSJ

[BENGALURU] Credit Suisse Group had more than US$20 billion of exposure to investments related to Archegos Capital Management and struggled to monitor them before the fund had to liquidate many large positions, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Parts of the bank had not fully implemented systems to keep pace with Archegos' fast growth when Archegos bets on a collection of stocks swelled leading up to its March collapse, the report said, citing unidentified people familiar with the matter.

Chief executive Thomas Gottstein and Lara Warner, the bank's recently departed chief risk officer, became aware of the Archegos exposure in the days leading up to the forced liquidation of the fund, the report said. Neither of them had been aware of the fund as a major client before, it said.

Credit Suisse declined to comment on the WSJ report.

Switzerland's second-biggest bank has been reeling from its exposure to the collapse first of British fund Greensill Capital and then US investment fund Archegos within the course of one month.

Huge losses at Archegos last month prompted Credit Suisse to replace its heads of investment banking and of compliance and risk after it said it would book a US$4.7 billion first-quarter charge from exposure to the stricken firm.

REUTERS