Credit Suisse Has ‘Good DNA Around Risk Management,’ Ex-CEO Says
Credit Suisse Has ‘Good DNA Around Risk Management,’ Ex-CEO Says
(Bloomberg) -- Credit Suisse Group AG should be judged on its past successes in risk management, including during the financial crisis, and not just the multibillion-dollar hit it took from the implosion of Archegos Capital Management, the lender’s former chief executive officer said.
“They have great businesses, great franchises, a lot of great people,” Brady Dougan, Credit Suisse’s CEO from 2007 to 2015, said Thursday in a Bloomberg Television interview. “Clearly you kind of have to put that in perspective.”
The Swiss company emerged as the big loser after global investment banks’ raced to the exits during the implosion of Archegos, with the fiasco leading to a quarterly loss and a major executive shakeup. The firm will take a 4.4 billion franc ($4.7 billion) writedown tied to its Archegos exposure, forcing it to cut its dividend and suspend share buybacks. Credit Suisse’s investment bank head and chief risk officer were among more than half a dozen executives replaced.
“Through the financial crisis in 2008, Credit Suisse was one of the banks that did not have any government bailout and was considered to have managed one of the best through that crisis,” said Dougan, now CEO of Exos Financial. “So there is a lot of good DNA around risk management there as well.”
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