Credit Suisse makes emergency Swiss fix with chairman pick
BNN Bloomberg
Credit Suisse Group AG turned to a Swiss candidate for the second time in two years for a top role at the bank, as it struggles to repair its reputation after a series of trading and personnel scandals.
Credit Suisse Group AG turned to a Swiss candidate for the second time in two years for a top role at the bank, as it struggles to repair its reputation after a series of trading and personnel scandals.
The lender picked Zurich insider Axel Lehmann, 62, as its new chairman after Antonio Horta-Osorio was forced to resign following quarantine breaks after just nine months in charge. That mirrors a move in early 2020 when it abruptly replaced Chief Executive Officer Tidjane Thiam after a spying scandal with Thomas Gottstein, the head of the local business and its first Swiss-born CEO in almost two decades.
Lehmann’s task now is to restore confidence in the institution after the failures of the past year made it the worst-performing major bank stock in the region. The storied Zurich-based lender is struggling to stabilize as the departure of Horta-Osorio throws the revamp of the bank back into turmoil following the multi-billion-dollar blow-ups of 2021.
“Axel Lehmann in our view has a well-established profile in Switzerland,” JPMorgan Chase & Co. analysts Kian Abouhossein and Amit Ranjan said in a note on Monday. “He along with the CEO is likely to continue working on improving the risk culture of the group.”
Lehmann is a relative newcomer, joining the board of directors in October, overseeing its risk committee. He previously worked for rival UBS Group AG as chief operating officer and then as head of the personal and corporate banking unit as well as president of UBS Switzerland.
Horta-Osorio joined Credit Suisse in April as it was reeling from the losses incurred from the collapse of both Greensill Capital and Archegos Capital Management. Taking a hands-on approach to the strategy review unveiled in November, Horta-Osorio quickly overshadowed Gottstein amid questions over the Credit Suisse veteran’s leadership.
