Zurich According to a media report, Thomas Gottstein’s days at the helm of Credit Suisse are numbered. The resignation of the head of the second largest Swiss bank, who has been in office since 2020, could be announced as early as Wednesday, as the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times reported on Tuesday evening, citing people familiar with the process. Credit Suisse declined to comment on the report.
It is therefore still unclear who will be Gottstein’s successor. In banking circles, however, an internal succession plan is considered likely. As an obvious candidate, Christian Meissner is traded, currently investment banking board member.
The forthcoming change at the top of Credit Suisse comes as a surprise to many bank employees. Just a few weeks ago, Gottstein and Chairman of the Board of Directors Axel Lehmann were traveling together, for example in Germany. They promoted the new strategy to strengthen asset management among customers and employees.
Under Gottstein’s leadership, there was a series of scandals and billions in losses: In March 2021, for example, the bank had to liquidate the supply chain financing fund operated by the bankrupt fintech Greensill. Since then, investors have been worried about investor money in the billions. In addition, the collapse of the hedge fund Archegos caused a loss of five billion dollars in the same month.
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Despite the scandals, Chairman of the Board of Directors Lehmann had long trusted Gottstein to lead the bank out of the crisis. With the exception of Switzerland boss André Helfenstein, all board members who were in office before the March 2021 scandal were replaced. Lehmann himself has not been chief supervisor for long either: he took over from António Horta-Osório at the beginning of January, who had stumbled upon violations of corona restrictions.
How big is the quarterly loss?
As early as May, smaller investors called for Gottstein to be exchanged. At the time, Lehmann, President of the Board of Directors, vigorously rejected a report that the bank was already considering his replacement.
A change in the CEO post was considered too risky for the stability of the bank in view of the many other changes. Gottstein is said to have enjoyed the backing of anchor shareholders such as the Qatari sovereign wealth fund and investor Harris Associates.
But now there is much to suggest that the quarterly results that the bank intends to publish this Wednesday were so bad that the CEO was simply no longer tenable. The weak figures from competitors Julius Baer and UBS already indicated that things could get uncomfortable for Credit Suisse.
In the run-up, the bank had put the capital market on weak numbers with a profit warning – it was the sixth profit warning in Gottstein’s term of office. Insiders had wondered how many negative headlines Gottstein could survive. Little did they know, however, that things would happen so quickly.
More: Major European banks: UBS is feeling the effects of the downturn