VIENNA (Reuters) – Credit score Suisse Chairman Urs Rohner doesn’t count on to be voted out of workplace earlier than his time period ends after this week’s departure of Chief Government Tidjane Thiam over a spying scandal.
FILE PHOTO: Chairman Urs Rohner of Swiss financial institution Credit score Suisse takes half in a panel dialogue on the Swiss Worldwide Monetary Discussion board (SIFF) in Rueschlikon, Switzerland November 6, 2019. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann
“I’m not afraid of being voted out of workplace,” Rohner was quoted as saying by newspaper Schweiz am Wochenende on Saturday, including that the supervisory board had acted unanimously in deciding with Thiam that he ought to step down.
Rohner additionally mentioned he had acquired “clear responses” from shareholders supporting the choice.
Credit score Suisse, which is Switzerland’s second-largest financial institution and among the many greatest in Europe’s largest, hopes Thiam’s exit will draw a line beneath the scandal that hit its fame and shocked the Swiss monetary neighborhood.
However the transfer additionally runs the danger of irking worldwide shareholders who had backed Thiam, not Rohner. Credit score Suisse and Thiam, CEO for nearly 5 years, say he was not conscious it was spying on former executives together with wealth supervisor Iqbal Khan, who defected to rival UBS.
Thomas Gottstein, who heads the Swiss enterprise at Credit score Suisse, will take over from Thiam, the Zurich-based lender mentioned on Friday, ending a battle between Thiam and Rohner over the surveillance scandal.
Credit score Suisse’s board mentioned Rohner had its backing to finish his time period till April 2021. Whether or not shareholders will assist him at this yr’s annual assembly stays to be seen.
“You may by no means make sure. However I’ve no indication that my re-election might be at risk,” Rohner mentioned.
Selecting Gottstein, the primary Swiss citizen to run Credit score Suisse in nearly 20 years, to switch French-Ivorian Thiam was not a knee-jerk response, he added.
“We assessed numerous candidates. We do this recurrently, twice a yr, in reality … That enabled us now to achieve a call rapidly,” Rohner was quoted as saying.
Reporting by Francois Murphy; Modifying by Alexander Smith
