Credit Suisse staff prepare to sue Swiss regulator over lost AT1 bonuses: FT

CREDIT Suisse staff are preparing to sue the Swiss financial regulator over US$400 million of bonuses that were cancelled after the troubled lender’s rescue by UBS Group, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Monday (May 22).

Quinn Emanuel and Pallas, law firms which are already suing Swiss regulator Finma on behalf of investors who owned Additional Tier-1 (AT1) bonds, have received multiple requests from senior managers at Credit Suisse to take legal action on their behalf, the report said.

Credit Suisse declined to comment, while Quinn Emanuel, Pallas and Finma did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.

As a part of the takeover in March, the Swiss regulator ordered 16 billion Swiss francs (S$23.92 billion) of the lender’s AT1 debt to be written down to zero, while shareholders received some compensation.

Following this, Switzerland’s Federal Council instructed Credit Suisse to cancel or reduce all outstanding bonus payments for the top three levels of management and examine whether those already paid could be recovered.

Under Swiss banking law, the Federal Council can impose bonus-related measures on a systemically important bank if it received state aid from federal funds.

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AT1s are issued by banks to help them make up the capital buffers which regulators require them to hold. They can be converted into equity; but until they are, they do not dilute a lender’s share capital.