Credit Suisse Group AG (, ) was a global investment bank and financial services firm founded and based in Switzerland. According to UBS, eventually Credit Suisse was to be fully integrated into UBS. While the integration was yet to be completed, both banks are operating separately. However, on May 31, 2024, it was announced that Credit Suisse ceased to exist. Headquartered in Zürich, as a standalone firm, it maintained offices in all major around the world and provided services in , private banking, asset management, and shared services. It was known for strict Bank secrecy and banking secrecy. The Financial Stability Board considered it to be a global systemically important bank. Credit Suisse was also a primary dealer and Forex counterparty of the Federal Reserve in the United States.
Credit Suisse was founded in 1856 to fund the development of Switzerland's rail system. It issued loans that helped create Switzerland's electrical grid and the European rail system. In the 1900s, it began shifting to retail banking in response to the elevation of the middle class and competition from fellow Swiss banks UBS and Julius Bär. Credit Suisse partnered with First Boston in 1978 before buying a controlling share of the bank in 1988. From 1990 to 2000, the company purchased institutions such as Winterthur Group, Swiss Volksbank, Swiss American Securities Inc. (SASI), and Bank Leu.
The company was one of the least affected banks during the 2008 financial crisis, but afterwards began shrinking its investment business, executing layoffs and cutting costs. The bank was at the center of multiple international investigations for tax avoidance (such as the famous "Suisse Secrets" scandal) which culminated in a guilty plea and the forfeiture of US$2.6 billion in fines from 2008 to 2012. By the end of 2022, Credit Suisse had approximately in assets under management.
On 19 March 2023, following negotiations with the Swiss government, UBS announced its intent to acquire Credit Suisse for $3.25 billion (CHF 3 billion) in order to prevent the bank's collapse. UBS completed the acquisition in June 2023.
Credit Suisse played a substantial role in the economic development of Switzerland, helping the country develop its currency system,
funding entrepreneurs and investing in the Gotthard railway, which connected Switzerland to the European rail system in 1882. Credit Suisse helped fund the creation of Switzerland's electrical grid through its participation with Elektrobank (now called Elektrowatt), a coalition of organizations that co-financed Switzerland's electrical grid. According to The Handbook on the History of European Banks, "Switzerland's young electricity industry came to assume the same importance as support for railway construction 40 years earlier." The bank also helped fund the effort to disarm and imprison French troops that crossed into Swiss borders in the 1870 Franco-Prussian War. By the end of the war, Credit Suisse had become the largest bank in Switzerland.Throughout the late 1800s, Credit Suisse set up banking and insurance companies in Germany, Brussels, Geneva and others (as SKA International) with the bank as a shareholder of each company. It created insurance companies like Swiss RE, Swiss Life (aka Rentenanstalt) and Schweiz. Credit Suisse had its first unprofitable year in 1886, due to losses in agriculture, venture investments, commodities, and international trade. The bank created its own sugar beet factory, bought 25,000 shares in animal breeding ventures and supported an export business, Schweizerische Exportgesellschaft, that experienced heavy losses for over-speculative investing.
In the early 1900s Credit Suisse began catering to consumers and the middle-class with deposit counters, currency exchanges and savings accounts. The first branch outside of Zürich was opened in 1905 in Basel. The bank helped companies affected by World War I restructuring, and extended loans for reconstruction efforts.
During the 1920s depression, net profits and dividends were halved and employees took salary cuts. After World War II, a substantial portion of Credit Suisse's business was in foreign reconstruction efforts. Banks subsequently acquired by Credit Suisse have been linked to bank accounts used by members of the Nazi Party in the 1930s. Holocaust survivors had problems trying to retrieve assets from relatives that died in concentration camps without death certificates. This led to a class action lawsuit in 1996 that settled in 2000 for $1.25 billion. The Agreement on the Swiss Banks' Code of Conduct with Regard to the Exercise of Due Diligence was created in the 1970s, after a Credit Suisse branch in Chiasso Chiasso scandal for illegally funneling $900 million in Italian deposits to speculative investments.
In 1987, the Group acquired the blue chip London stockbrokers Buckmaster & Moore, originally established by aristocrat Charles Armytage-Moore and sportsman Walter Buckmaster, who had met at Repton School. As stockbrokers they were very well connected, had developed a good private client business, which at one time included John Maynard Keynes.
Other Credit Suisse First Boston brands were later created in Switzerland, Asia, London, New York and Tokyo. According to an article in The New York Times, First Boston became "the superstar of the Euromarkets" by buying stakes in American companies that wanted to issue bonds. In 1988 First Boston loaned $487 million to Gibbons and Green for the purchase of the Ohio Mattress Company, which was purchased at twenty times its annual revenue. Gibbons had also borrowed $475 million in junk bonds. When the junk bonds market crashed the following year, Gibbons couldn't repay First Boston. Credit Suisse injected $725 million to keep First Boston in business, which ultimately led to the company being taken over by Credit Suisse. This became known as the "burning bed" deal, because the Federal Reserve overlooked the Glass–Steagall Act that requires separation between commercial and investment banks in order to preserve the stability of the financial markets.
In the late 1990s, Credit Suisse executed an aggressive acquisition strategy. The bank acquired Bank Leu, known as Switzerland's oldest bank, in 1990. In 1993 Credit Suisse outbid UBS for a controlling stake in Switzerland's fifth largest bank, Swiss Volksbank in a $1.1 billion deal. It also merged with Winterthur Group in 1997 for about $9 billion and acquired the asset management division of Warburg, Pincus & Co. in 1999 for $650 million. Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette was purchased for $11.5 billion in 2000.
In 1996, Credit Suisse restructured as the Credit Suisse Group with four divisions: Credit Suisse Volksbank (later called Credit Suisse Bank) for domestic banking, Credit Suisse Private Banking, Credit Suisse Asset Management, and Credit Suisse First Boston for corporate and investment banking. The restructure was expected to cost the company $800 million and result in 7,000 lost jobs, but save $560 million a year. While Credit Suisse First Boston had been struggling, Credit Suisse's overall profits had grown 20 percent over the prior year, reaching $664 million. In 1999 Japan's Financial Supervisory Agency temporarily suspended the financial-products division's license to operate in Japan for "window dressing", the practice of selling derivatives that are often used by bank clients to hide losses.
In the 2000s, Credit Suisse executed a series of restructures. In 2002 the bank was consolidated into two entities: Credit Suisse First Boston for investments and Credit Suisse Financial Services. A third unit was added in 2004 for insurance. Credit Suisse restructured again in 2004 under what it calls the "one bank" model. Under the restructuring, every board had a mix of executives from all three divisions. It also changed the compensation and commission models to encourage cross-division referrals and created a "solution partners" group that functions between the investment and private banking divisions. Following the restructure Credit Suisse's private banking division grew 19 percent per year despite the economic crisis. The firm bumped long-time rival UBS off the number one position in Euromoney's private banking poll. In 2006, Credit Suisse acknowledged misconduct for helping Iran and other countries hide transactions from US authorities and paid a $536 million settlement. The same year it merged Bank Leu AG, Clariden Holding AG, Bank Hofmann AG and BGP Banca di Gestione Patrimoniale into a new company called Clariden Leu.
The increasing importance of sustainability and the related commitments and liabilities of international standards such as the UNGC, of which the bank is a member, lead to increasingly sophisticated and ambitious risk management over the years. Credit Suisse operates a process which since 2007 uses RepRisk, a Swiss provider of ESG Risk analytics and metrics, to screen and evaluate environmental and social risks of risky transactions and due diligence.[1]
In 2009, Yellowstone Club founder Tim Blixseth sued Credit Suisse when the bank attempted to collect on $286 million in loan debt during Yellowstone's bankruptcy proceedings. The debtor had borrowed more than $300 million for the business, but used a large portion of it for personal use before eventually filing for bankruptcy. Four lawsuits were filed from other resorts seeking $24 billion in damages alleging Credit Suisse created loans with the intention of taking over their properties upon default.
A series of international investigations took place in the early 2000s regarding the use of Bank secrecy in Credit Suisse accounts for tax evasion. In 2008, the Brazilian government investigated 13 former and current Credit Suisse employees. The investigation led to arrests that year and in 2009 as part of a larger crackdown in Brazil. Four Credit Suisse bankers were accused of fraud by the US Justice Department in 2011 for helping wealthy Americans avoid taxes. In 2012, German authorities found that citizens were using insurance policies of a Bermuda-based Credit Suisse subsidiary to earn tax-free interest.
In November 2012, Credit Suisse's asset management division was merged with the private banking arm. In September 2012, the Swiss government gave banks like Credit Suisse permission to provide information to the US Justice Department for tax evasion probes. In February 2014, it agreed to pay a fine of $197 million after one of its businesses served 8,500 US clients without registering its activities, leading to suspicion as to whether it was helping Americans evade taxes. It was one of 14 Swiss banks under investigation. Separately, in 2013, German authorities began to probe Credit Suisse, its private bank subsidiary Clariden Leu, and its regional subsidiary Neue Aargauer Bank for helping German citizens evade taxes. In 2012, the bank eventually entered into a €150 million settlement with the government.
In March 2014, Credit Suisse denied claims it had been drawn into a Swiss competition probe investigating potential collusion to manipulate foreign exchange rates (Forex scandal) by various Swiss and foreign banks. In May 2014, Credit Suisse pleaded guilty to conspiring to aid tax evasion. It was the most prominent bank to plead guilty in the United States since Drexel Burnham Lambert in 1989 and the largest to do so since the Bankers Trust in 1999. "Credit Suisse conspired to help US citizens hide assets in offshore accounts in order to evade paying taxes. When a bank engages in misconduct this brazen, it should expect that the Justice Department will pursue criminal prosecution to the fullest extent possible, as has happened here," Attorney General Eric H. Holder said at the time. Holder also said "This case shows that no financial institution, no matter its size or global reach, is above the law."
In March 2015, it was announced that Tidjane Thiam, the CEO of Prudential plc would leave to become the next CEO of Credit Suisse. In September 2016, Brian Chin was appointed Chief Executive of Global Markets and joined the executive board of the bank. At this time, it was also announced that Eric M. Varvel was appointed president and CEO of Credit Suisse Holdings (USA).
The collapse of Lehman Brothers caused a large loss in consumer and market participant trust and confidence in the banking industry. The loss in confidence is reflected in the large loss of share prices across the Swiss banking sector after 2008.
In August 2019, Credit Suisse announced the formation of a new "direct banking" business unit under their Switzerland division (Swiss Universal Bank, SUB), focusing on digital retail products. The step is seen as a reaction to the emergence of FinTech competitors such as N26 or Revolut in Switzerland and shall help to better attract young clients. In July 2020, Thomas Gottstein, the new CEO of the company, announced restructuring; it was influenced as a result of the trading surge in Q2 of 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The planned restructuring is set "to reduce costs and improve efficiencies" and features some reverts of alterations brought by the previous CEO, Thiam. According to Gottstein, "These initiatives should also help to provide resilience in uncertain markets and deliver further upside when more positive economic conditions prevail."
In November 2022, Credit Suisse announced that it was selling the majority of its Securitized Products Group to Apollo Asset Management. Credit Suisse cited a reduction in RWA as the primary factor driving the sale. The deal was expected to close in the first half of 2023. Media | UBS Global The spin-off was branded Atlas SP and the deal ultimately finalized in March 2024. US asset management firm Apollo and UBS finalize Atlas SP spin-off
In December 2022, Credit Suisse completed a CHF 4.00bn capital increase by the way of a CHF 2.24bn rights issue and a CHF 1.80bn private placing.
On 9 February 2023, the bank reported an annual loss of CHF 7.3bn, the biggest loss since the 2008 financial crisis. On 14 March of that same year, Credit Suisse published its annual report for 2022 saying it had identified “material weaknesses” in controls over financial reporting.
]] On 15 March 2023, Credit Suisse' share price dropped nearly 25percent after Saudi National Bank, its largest investor, said it could not provide more financial assistance. The market price of the bank's unsecured bonds set for maturity in 2027 dropped to a low of 33percent of their par value on that day, down from being valued at 90percent of their par value at the beginning of the month.
Later in the same week, Credit Suisse sought to shore up their finances by taking a loan of 50 billion Swiss francs from the Swiss National Bank (SNB); the bank later proceeded to buy three billion Swiss francs of its own debt and to put the Baur en Ville hotel in Zürich for sale. However, this intervention did not stop investors and customers from bank run of Credit Suisse, with outflows topping 10 billion Swiss francs during the week, and almost $69 billion (approximately 61 billion Swiss francs) in withdrawals during the first calendar quarter. The situation was so compromised that the SNB and the Swiss government started discussions to fast-track the bank's acquisition by UBS. On 19 March 2023, UBS announced a deal had been reached to acquire Credit Suisse for US$3.25billion () in an all-stock deal.
European regulators have criticized the moral hazard of the AT1 bondholders suffering in the loss of their capital rather than the shareholders of the bank. In June 2024, a group of Credit Suisse bondholders holding $82 million worth of the bank's ATL debt filed a lawsuit against Switzerland seeking compensation.
According to financial analysts, economic sanctions imposed by Switzerland on Russian economy and businesses had a significant impact on the demise of the bank. According to Bloomberg News, Credit Suisse held about $33 billion for Russian clients, 50% more than UBS.
In late April 2023, the political and economic fall-out had been evaluated by a number of economic analysts, particularly the resulting lack of banking competition in Switzerland's economy. The take-over by UBS had limited the choice of lenders, particularly for smaller and medium-sized companies. Credit Suisse's international reach had affected the employment situation in Europe as well as other regions. The Swiss economy as such also relies on a number of heavily capitalised state banks that have been a significant lender to those smaller enterprises, particularly after the demise of CS.
In 2023, the Credit Suisse unit in Singapore was ordered to pay $743 million to Georgian billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili for fraud.
Lukas Muhlemann's cost-cutting efforts in 1993–2002 faced setbacks, and Oswald Grubel grappled with restructuring post–2008 crisis during 2003–2013. Tidjane Thiam's wealth management focus in 2015–2020 faced external challenges, leading to resignation. Tomas Gottstein, since 2020, tackles geopolitical tensions, emphasizing sustainability while navigating regulatory changes for investor confidence. Understanding Credit Suisse's leadership involves considering broader industry trends and key advisors beyond CEOs.
Credit Suisse has the following operational divisions:
Operations are divided into four regions: Switzerland, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, the Americas, and the Asian Pacific.
On 9 May 2023, Credit Suisse announced that it would continue its banking operations but under the hospice of UBS in order to fulfill its financial obligations towards existing clients as well as employees of both banks. CEO Ulrich Körner will join UBS's executive board.
As of 25 January 2023, Saudi National Bank, an anchor investor, held a 10 per cent stake, Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) boosted its stake in the Credit Suisse Group to 6.87 per cent and Harris Associates reported a holding of below 3 per cent. Harris Associates reported having exited all its Credit Suisse positions by March 2023. Credit Suisse stock (CS) in the NYSE fell from $2.50 to $1.88 a share on 15 March 2023.
On 19 March 2023, fellow Swiss bank group UBS agreed to buy Credit Suisse for more than billion. The purchase of Credit Suisse by UBS has reportedly averted a greater crisis, according to SNB.
Credit Suisse endorses a strategy called bancassurance of trying to be a single company that offers every common financial services product.
The investment bank is intended for companies and wealthy individuals with more than 50,000 euro.Credit Suisse developed the CreditRisk+ model of risk assessment in loans, which is focused exclusively on the chance of default based on the exogenous Poisson method. As of 2002, about 20 percent of Credit Suisse's revenue was from its insurance business it gained through the 1997 acquisition of Winterthur Group. The investment bank's insurance products are primarily popular in the domestic market and include auto, fire, property, life, disability, pension and retirement products among others.
Historically, 20–40 percent of the bank's revenue has been from private banking services, one of its higher profit-margin divisions.Credit Suisse produces one of the six hedge funds following European stock indices that are used to evaluate the performance of the markets. The investment bank also has a 30 percent ownership in hedge fund investment firm York Capital Management. York sells hedge funds independently to its own clients, while Credit Suisse also offers them to private banking clients. Credit Suisse manages the financial instruments of the Dow Jones Credit Suisse long/short equity index (originally called Credit Suisse/Tremont Hedge Fund Indexes).
According to a 2011 article in Seeking Alpha, Credit Suisse's investment managers favor financial, technology and energy sector stocks. The bank's head of equity investments in Europe said the team focuses on "value with an emphasis on free cashflow". She also has an interest in companies undergoing management changes that may influence the stock price. According to a story in The Wall Street Journal, the head of Credit Suisse's International Focus Fund keeps a portfolio of only 40–50 stocks, instead of the industry-norm of more than 100. Credit Suisse publishes its investment advice in four publications: Compass, Viewpoints, Research and the Credit Suisse Investment Committee Report.
On 5 May 2023, Credit Suisse announced it would buy Ecuadorian bonds worth $1.6 billion in a debt-for-nature swap that costs the Swiss bank only $644 million. As a result, the government of Ecuador pledged to spend about $18 million annually for two decades on conservation in the Galapagos islands, a UNESCO world heritage site. The bond purchase was below 55% of the purchase value and below 35.5% for the consecutive 5 year-intervals after 2025. Underwriters for that deal is the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the U.S. International Development Finance Cooperation, therefore limiting the risk for Credit Suisse. The deal effectively saves Ecuador from liquidity shortages due to an estimated public debt of $66.8 billion. In April 2020, Ecuador repaid $1 billion of loans made two years earlier by Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse.
Until its acquisition by UBS in 2023, Credit Suisse was a member of Wall Street's bulge bracket, a list of the largest and most profitable banks. The company was one of the world's most important banks, upon which international financial stability depends. The bank was also one of Fortune Magazine's most admired companies.
As of 2004, Credit Suisse was first in volume of high-yield transactions, second for corporate high-yield bond insurance and third for IPO underwriting.
As of 2012, Credit Suisse was recognised as the world's best private bank by Euromoney Global Private Banking Survey and as the best European Equity Manager by Global Investors. In polls by Euromoney, it has been ranked as the top private bank and the best bank in Switzerland. In 1995, the Securities Data Company ranked Credit Suisse as the fourth best place for financial advice for mergers and acquisitions in the US and sixth for domestic equity issues. Credit Suisse was recognized by the Asset Triple A Awards and in 2005 it was ranked as the second best prime broker by Institutional Investor.An investigation in February 2022 by The Guardian following the Suisse Secrets leaks revealed that Credit Suisse was holding bank accounts for many criminals, fraudsters, and corrupt politicians.
In early September 2023, UBS had clearly profited from the takeover as its stocks were increasingly valuable. From April to July, UBS made a record profit of 29.2 billion CHF and its stocks, which were initially depressed after the fusion, were traded at much higher prices. The record profit was based on the difference between the purchase price of Credit Suisse stocks and the apparently higher value of its assets. In March 2025, investigations uncovered that Credit Suisse allegedly concealed Nazi-linked bank accounts by placing them under a secret "American blacklist" file to evade detection. This revelation suggests that the bank maintained accounts connected to known Nazis and entities involved in seizing Jewish-owned assets during World War II.
The traders secured sham "independent" marks for illiquid securities that they held position in from friends who worked at other financial firms. Their friends generated prices that valued a number of bonds at the prices that the traders requested, which the traders then recorded as the true value of the bonds. The bank was not charged in the case. Credit Suisse's outside auditor discovered the mismarkings during an audit. Credit Suisse took a $2.65 billion write-down after discovering their traders' mismarking.
The tennis theme was chosen to urge Swiss tennis star Roger Federer to break his connection with Credit Suisse as a sponsor due to the company's participating in the climate crisis (notably by multiplying 16-fold its financing for coal from 2016 to 2017). On 11 January 2020, Federer published a statement saying: "... I have a great deal of respect and admiration for the youth climate movement, and I am grateful to young climate activists for pushing us all to examine our behaviours", and further committed to a dialogue with his sponsors on social issues.
On 24 January 2020, following the trial, the climate activist group emitted a press statement requesting a transparent, televised debate with the CEO of Credit Suisse. With no answer from the bank, they created a website under the name "DiscreditSuisse" hosting content pertaining to Credit Suisse's record on climate issues.
On 7 October 2022, the bank offered to buy back US$3 billion worth of debt, and put Zurich's Savoy Hotel on sale, which was later purchased by wealthy Arab officials. The bank's current chairman, Axel Lehmann, also assured investors that the bank was stable after wealthy clients began moving their assets out of the bank. In the fall-out from the falling stock prices, insiders believed that Saudi prince Mohammed bin Salman was looking to invest almost US$500 million into the bank, but had to withdraw his offer due to regulatory concerns.
Roles and responsibilities are less stringent and the environment is pleasant despite hours being "the most grueling on Wall Street".
Vault's Insider's Guide reached similar conclusions, noting above-average training, executive access and openness matched with reports of 80- to 100-hour work-weeks.In 2023, the bank made moves to pay bonuses to top executives and senior bankers upfront but included an added condition that they needed to stay with the bank for three years or else they would need to pay the bonus, or some of the bonus, back to the company. Later the Swiss federal government, as well as the last General Assembly of Credit Suisse shareholders voted to withdraw or seriously reduce bonus payments to top management.
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