Credit Suisse special audit backed by Norway’s wealth fund

A TOP Credit Suisse Group investor is supporting a proposal for a special audit over the collapse of a group of supply chain finance funds the bank ran with now-defunct Greensill Capital.

Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, one of the largest shareholders in Credit Suisse, said it will back the call for more transparency by the Ethos Foundation and 7 Swiss pension funds at the annual shareholder meeting. The bank has so far refused to publish an internal report on the funds, which had about US$10 billion in assets when they were frozen more than a year ago. 

Credit Suisse had initially hoped to present key findings from the report last year but later decided it won’t publish it for fear of hurting ongoing efforts to recover investor money. The Greensill scandal, along with losses from the collapse of Archegos Capital Management, dealt Credit Suisse its worst year since the financial crisis and prompted a management and board shakeup.

Credit Suisse is asking investors to reject the call for a special audit, and shareholder proxy advisers Glass Lewis and ISS are supporting the lender on that point. The decision by the Norwegian fund may add momentum to the proposal, which will be voted on at the Apr 29 meeting.

Norway’s wealth fund, the world’s largest, also said it will vote against absolving the bank’s leadership of their legal liability for the fiscal year 2020. It said it will support a discharge for 2021 after Credit Suisse excluded the collapse of the Greensill funds from that vote.

The Norwegian fund regularly takes an active role at shareholder meetings to promote responsible investment. It has voted against an executive pay package at Apple and was among Ericsson shareholders who voted against discharging chief executive officer Borje Ekholm from legal liability, in a backlash following renewed allegations of corruption in Iraq and beyond.

The fund started publishing all voting intentions ahead of shareholder meetings in 2021 to be more transparent in how it exercises its ownership to promote good corporate governance and similar goals.

Last year, it announced it would vote against the re-election to the board of 6 members including lead independent director Severin Schwan. Schwan, who had come under criticism that his role as chief executive officer of Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche Holding doesn’t leave him enough time to fulfill his duties at the lender, won’t stand for re-election this year.