Credit score Suisse chairman ‘actually sorry’ for failure to stem disaster

The general public mea culpa comes as shareholders confront management over the historic takeover by bigger rival UBS Group that marks the top of Credit score Suisse after 167 years. The three billion-franc ($3.3 billion) deal was sealed final month to place an finish to a disaster of confidence after years of scandals, losses, and failures in threat administration. Fragile investor sentiment round banking was additional harm by the failure of Silicon Valley Financial institution.

The deal was agreed with out the approval of both Credit score Suisse or UBS’s shareholders, underscoring the urgency for the Swiss authorities to orchestrate an answer. In asserting the acquisition, it cited an article of the structure that permits it to concern short-term ordinances “to counter current or imminent threats of significant disruption to public order or inner or exterior safety.” On this case, this included overriding merger legal guidelines on shareholder votes.

“We needed to place all our power and our efforts into turning the state of affairs round and placing the financial institution again on monitor,” Lehmann stated. “It pains me that we did not have the time to take action, and that in that fateful week in March our plans have been disrupted. For that I’m actually sorry.”

The shareholder assembly, held in Zurich’s hockey stadium, is the primary event in years the place traders will be capable of confront administration face-to-face. Earlier conferences have been held nearly as a result of pandemic.

Shareholders and proxy advisors indicated previous to the assembly their intention to vote towards the reelection of a number of board members together with Lehmann and expressed discontent with the board of administrators and administration’s management of the financial institution. It is nonetheless unclear which of the failed financial institution’s high executives will survive the takeover, with Lehmann and Chief Government Officer Ulrich Koerner seen exiting.