CS President Lehmann
“Customer funds are coming back”
At a banking summit in London, the top management of Credit Suisse took an exceptionally open position on the current crisis. The worst is already over, says CS President Axel Lehmann.
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Axel Lehmann, President of Credit Suisse, believes the worst is over.
It’s a classic firefighting operation. Because at Credit Suisse it’s ablaze. Since the capital increase of 4 billion was decided, the papers of the big bank have lost value. Day after day. A CS share currently costs a touch more than 2.70 francs.
CS President Axel Lehmann (63) therefore took the opportunity to contain the big fire at least a little when he appeared at a banking conference of the “Financial Times” in London. The outflow of client assets had weakened at Credit Suisse. In Switzerland even “partially the other way round”. Means: In Switzerland, CS should already be receiving funds again.
Hardly any assets deducted
In November, Credit Suisse shocked investors with the announcement that customers had withdrawn CHF 84 billion since the end of October – 6 percent of all funds under management. Lehmann blames rumors that were spread on Twitter. Now he is confident: “Only very few customers have withdrawn their entire assets.” Is the worst really over?
Lehmann is confident. The withdrawn customer funds would come back sooner or later, he tells the Reuters news agency. The fact that the share fell below 3 francs did not surprise him, he continues. And is deliberately self-confident. The effects of his attempt to spread optimism will be reflected in the stock charts by the end of the week at the latest. So far, investors have remained unimpressed by Lehmann’s assurances: the share price is still deep in the red.
“I was extremely tough”
Tidjane Thiam (60), former CEO of Credit Suisse, made his highly acclaimed appearance in London on Wednesday. “I was extremely tough and I’m pretty proud that none of this happened under my supervision,” said Thiam about the latest scandals.
A year after his departure, CS lost billions with the Archegos and Greensill debacles. Observers agree: the bank lacked the risk culture, which is why it slipped into such expensive scandals from time to time. However, Thiam does not seem to feel responsible for this.
As early as 2016, he called for a “cultural change” at the bank. But his five years at the head of the bank were simply not enough to solve the problems: “Cultural changes don’t happen overnight. It takes more than five years to do that.” (pbe)