Credit Suisse halted job cuts when the pandemic broke out. CEO Thomas Gottstein is poised to ease the moratorium, signaling mid-term cuts to staff.
The bank is nearing normalcy again, CEO Thomas Gottstein told «Neue Zuercher Zeitung» (behind paywall, in German) in an interview with the Swiss daily. Credit Suisse teams will gradually begin returning to regular office space in the coming weeks.
The CEO of three months said that Credit Suisse won't be needing as much workspace as in the past. «On average, our employees will be working from home more frequently,» he noted. Initial estimates predict roughly ten to 20 percent of working time will be remote.
Automating = Less Staff
The softer demand for office space aside, Gottstein signaled Credit Suisse will cut jobs eventually. The bank, like UBS, froze such measures amid the outbreak.
«We'll certainly need less staff in the mid-term – especially because we can keep automating parts of our business,» he told the outlet, without elaborating. The bank rode a boom in trading in February, as finews.com reported.
Share Price Lags
It was cagier on its prospects for the rest of 2020. «In order for the share price to rise, we need to deliver good results every quarter,» Gottstein said. Spending cuts would play an even more important role than previously.
Ex-CEO Tidjane Thiam cut Credit Suisse's spending bill nearly one-quarter in his four-year tenure, to 17.4 billion Swiss francs ($17.6 billion). Gottstein took over suddenly from Thiam in February following a damaging, months-long spy scandal.
