Credit Suisse boss tossed overboard
Credit Suisse Group has sacked its CEO, Tidjane Thiam, after his position became untenable.
Credit Suisse Group has ousted CEO Tidjane Thiam (pictured) in an attempt to “fix its reputation after a damaging spying scandal”, says Bloomberg.
While an internal probe absolved Thiam of responsibility for spying on an ex-employee, further spying incidents have now come to light, rattling Swiss regulators. Thiam’s replacement is Thomas Gottstein, a two-decade Credit Suisse veteran.
The board had little choice but to fire Thiam, says Liam Proud on Breakingviews. His position was “untenable”, given the role of his “long-time associate and chief operating officer” in the scandal. Thiam’s claims that he knew nothing were “not reassuring. At worst, [they] were unconvincing”. Nevertheless, the board now needs to explain its choice of Gottstein. His CV “is light in some of Credit Suisse’s most important growth areas, like US investment banking and Asian private banking”.
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Whatever the merits of Thiam’s dismissal, its hard to deny that he’s left Credit Suisse in a better position than when he took over, says The Economist.
Despite having to deal with legal issues stemming from the financial crisis, he’s managed to repair the bank’s balance sheet as well as reduce operating costs by around one-sixth in the past three years.
Most importantly, he’s shifted the bank away from “risky trading” towards “managing the wealth of the seriously rich”. As a result, assets under management at Credit Suisse have grown by CHF200bn to CHF1.5trn in the past five years. Overall, Gottstein “could do worse than follow his course”.
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Matthew graduated from the University of Durham in 2004; he then gained an MSc, followed by a PhD at the London School of Economics.
He has previously written for a wide range of publications, including the Guardian and the Economist, and also helped to run a newsletter on terrorism. He has spent time at Lehman Brothers, Citigroup and the consultancy Lombard Street Research.
Matthew is the author of Superinvestors: Lessons from the greatest investors in history, published by Harriman House, which has been translated into several languages. His second book, Investing Explained: The Accessible Guide to Building an Investment Portfolio, is published by Kogan Page.
As senior writer, he writes the shares and politics & economics pages, as well as weekly Blowing It and Great Frauds in History columns He also writes a fortnightly reviews page and trading tips, as well as regular cover stories and multi-page investment focus features.
Follow Matthew on Twitter: @DrMatthewPartri
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