Credit Suisse Considers Adding Risk Experts to Board

Swiss bank Credit Suisse said on Friday (Aug. 13) it wants to add two risk experts to its non-executive board in the wake of a pair of recent scandals.

Credit Suisse lost $5.5 billion as it tried to undo trades by family office Archegos and overcome the collapse of $10 billion in funds backed by bankrupt supply chain finance firm Greensill Capital, leading Chairman António Horta-Osório to prioritize risk and cultural change.

The company has recommended former UBS executive Axel Lehmann to join its board and become chairman of its risk committee. It also proposed Juan Colombas, who has been an executive director and member of the Audit and Risk Committees at Dutch bank ING Group since 2020, as a board member.

Credit Suisse has scheduled an extraordinary general meeting on Oct. 1 to consider the pair’s candidacy.

Nine Credit Suisse employees were fired over the Archegos scandal, and 23 total faced disciplinary action, including $70 million in penalties. Former Credit Suisse chief risk and compliance officer Lara Warner left the bank in April after the issue was unearthed.

Related news: Credit Suisse’s Refunds To Greensill Investors Now Total $5.9B

Credit Suisse paid another $400 million this week to investors affected by the Greensill-linked fund mess, bringing the total to nearly $6 billion, Reuters reported earlier this month. Greensill Capital provided supply chain financing and filed for bankruptcy in March.

Days later, Credit Suisse froze four Greensill-related funds. At the time of the move, Credit Suisse Multi-Strategy Bond Fund, Credit Suisse Multi-Strategy Alternative Fund, Credit Suisse Qatar Enhanced Short Duration Fund and Credit Suisse Institutional Target Volatility Fund held about $1.2 billion.

The question remains about whether Greensill is an isolated case or emblematic of the entire supply chain industry.

“Digitization [is] happening in pockets, but trade finance is highly interconnected and [an] interdependent system,” George Lee, chief operating officer at CCRManager, told PYMNTS. “Global efforts are still some distance away from being sufficiently collaborative, and this results in a disconnect between said pockets of digitalization.”