Credit Suisse names new compliance chief after series of missteps

Zurich

CREDIT Suisse Group AG named Rafael Lopez Lorenzo as chief compliance officer, filling the last gap left by the exit of Lara Warner after the twin hits from Greensill Capital and Archegos Capital Management.

Mr Lopez Lorenzo, currently head of group internal audit, will take over on Oct 1 from Thomas Grotzer, who filled the role on an interim basis since the departure of Ms Warner, according to a statement on Wednesday. The Swiss bank already in July hired David Wildermuth from Goldman Sachs Group Inc to become chief risk officer, a position Ms Warner also held.

Credit Suisse chairman Antonio Horta-Osorio is working to rebuild the management ranks, after the bank was hit harder than any other by Archegos, which collapsed just days after the Swiss bank had to freeze a US$10 billion group of funds it had run with Greensill Capital.

The scandals marked the culmination of a series of missteps that had raised concerns about the bank's controls, risk management and corporate culture, and prompted a shakeup at the top.

Since then, the bank separated the role of chief risk officer and chief compliance officer, created new credit-risk roles and recouped US$70 million in pay including bonus claw-backs. About two dozen people were punished for their role in the Archegos scandal, and executives have been paring risk, including downsizing the prime brokerage business by more than a third and cutting ties with clients it sees as posing greater likelihood of losses.

Mr Horta-Osorio has been seeking to bulk up the bank's risk oversight after the problems. The bank also in August said it nominated former UBS Group AG executive Axel Lehmann to head the board of directors' risk committee and ex-chief risk officer at Lloyd's Banking Group Juan Colombas for a seat on the board. Mr Colombas previously served under Mr Horta-Osorio as chief risk officer at Lloyds from 2011 to 2020.

After a string of external hires in recent months, the appointment of Mr Lopez Lorenzo shows the bank is also still willing to promote from its risk and compliance functions internally. Mr Lopez Lorenzo has been the bank's chief internal auditor for the past five years, previously working as a managing director at JPMorgan Chase & Co in New York, where he was global audit head of the corporate and investment bank, according to his LinkedIn profile. BLOOMBERG