Credit Suisse axes top bosses’ bonuses after biggest loss since financial crisis


Credit score Suisse has scrapped its annual bonus for high executives after the scandal-hit Swiss financial institution reported its worst full-year loss for the reason that 2008 banking disaster.

The lender on Thursday revealed a 7.3bn Swiss francs (£6.6bn) web loss for 2022, as shoppers withdrew their money at a dizzying tempo and the financial institution skilled a big drop in revenue from its wealth, asset administration and funding administration divisions.

The financial institution mentioned none of its executives, together with the brand new chief government, Ulrich Körner, would obtain bonuses after the poor efficiency. In the meantime, the full 2022 bonus pool for Credit score Suisse bankers has been decreased by 50%, with senior managers taking a much bigger reduce to their annual payouts than their junior colleagues.

Nonetheless, executives and about 500 senior managers are reportedly in line to share a 350m Swiss franc payout if the financial institution’s restructuring programme proves successful.

It’s the financial institution’s second consecutive yr within the pink, with losses having ballooned from a 1.7bn Swiss francs web loss in 2021. The financial institution warned that earnings wouldn’t recuperate this yr, and that the price of sweeping restructuring efforts would in all probability end in a “substantial loss earlier than taxes in 2023”.

The financial institution confirmed in October that its restructuring plans – which is able to put extra concentrate on the financial institution’s asset administration division for rich shoppers and shrinking its funding banking operations – would contain axing 9,000 jobs and spinning out a part of its funding financial institution underneath the model CS First Boston.

The overhaul follows a sequence of scandals in recent times. Credit score Suisse was embroiled within the collapse of the lender Greensill Capital and the US hedge fund Archegos Capital in 2021. That yr, it additionally admitted defrauding traders as a part of the Mozambique “tuna bonds” mortgage scandal, leading to a high-quality price greater than £350m.

In 2022, Swiss prosecutors discovered the financial institution responsible of serving to to launder cash on behalf of the Bulgarian mafia. The financial institution has denied wrongdoing and mentioned it could attraction towards the ruling.

Credit score Suisse additionally got here underneath hearth after the Suisse secrets and techniques investigation, which confirmed it had served shoppers concerned in torture, drug trafficking, cash laundering, corruption and different severe crimes over a long time.

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Commenting on the full-year outcomes, Körner mentioned: “2022 was an important yr for Credit score Suisse. We introduced our strategic plan to create an easier, extra centered financial institution, constructed round consumer wants and since October we have now been executing at tempo.”

“Now we have a transparent plan to create a brand new Credit score Suisse and intend to proceed to ship on our three-year strategic transformation by reshaping our portfolio, reallocating capital, right-sizing our value base and constructing on our main franchises,” he added.