Credit Suisse Chairman Urs Rohner opened a keenly-awaited, contentious shareholder meeting on Friday with a surprising concession – and an apology.
Urs Rohner's opening remarks at Credit Suisse's annual shareholder meeting on Friday addressed head-on a pay furor which has dominated headlines in recent weeks and overshadowed reasonable quarterly results.
«With hindsight, we and especially I may have been insufficiently sensitive to this issue, particularly given the international context, and for this I'd like to apologize,» Rohner told a full hall of angry shareholders.
Rohner argued that the only substantial difference in views from major shareholders groups and the bank itself was whether a billion-franc fine levied by U.S. authorities last December should have hit executive pay last year or not.
Deutsche Bank acts differently
«In our view, a new management team which was neither active in the bank during the period in question, nor was responsible for the corresponding transactions and which had met – and in some cases exceeded – its thoroughly challenging targets for 2016, should be rewarded in line with achieving those targets.»
This is an argument not necessarily followed by all Credit Suisse's peers: Deutsche Bank management, led by Chief Executive John Cryan, relinquished bonuses last year following a similar settlement for mis-selling mortgage securities.
«We obviously appreciate that this matter can be seen from another perspective,» Rohner said.
The admission is surprising in that Rohner is not known for self-examination. Weighty U.S. shareholder groups Glass Lewis and Institutional Shareholder Services, or ISS, are fighting the bank's compensation plan and some individual pay measures for top management.
More to follow
