The top floor of Credit Suisse (CS), which was only saved by an emergency sale, has apologized for the decline of the major bank. “I’m sincerely sorry,” said the Chairman of the CS Board of Directors, Axel Lehmann, at the Annual General Meeting in Zurich. Despite all efforts, the management was not able to stop the loss of customer confidence. “The bank could no longer be saved,” said Lehmann.
Competitor UBS plans to take over Credit Suisse in the coming months. This step as an alternative to bankruptcy was extremely important, said bank boss Ulrich Körner. “The collapse of Credit Suisse would have been a disaster for the global economy and for Switzerland.”
Bitter Shareholders
Shareholders were bitter about the development and called for consequences. “As a shareholder, I feel – yes, in Swiss German they say – crappy,” said one shareholder. Last but not least, serious mistakes were made in monitoring the bank.
Lehmann announced that the actually intended vote of the general meeting on a bonus for the management would be withdrawn. “This special bonus will therefore not be paid out.”
Notverkauf an die UBS
Lehmann and Körner have only been in office since 2022. According to their own statements, both had tried to turn things around in the bank, which had been shaken by scandals. However, the first successes on this course were completely wiped out by the dramatic events in March. The problems of several US banks fueled fears of a global banking crisis and hit Credit Suisse in particular.
After scandals, criticism of poor risk management and cash outflows in the hundreds of billions, Credit Suisse was saved by an emergency sale to UBS at the end of March. UBS pays three billion Swiss francs (a good 3 billion euros) for Credit Suisse. The deal was made possible by a state loss guarantee of nine billion francs and liquidity commitments of up to 200 billion francs. It is the largest banking deal in Europe since the global financial crisis 15 years ago.
