Two Credit Suisse top executives are stepping down as a result of the Archegos scandal. The Swiss bank is slashing its dividend for last year as it faces nearly $5 billion in wreckage.

The Zurich-based bank said both risk and compliance chief Lara Warner and top investment banker Brian Chin will step down, effective immediately and month-end, respectively, Credit Suisse said in a statement on Tuesday. Their resignations are due to Archegos' unwinding and a supply chain fund debacle.

The exits are part of a raft of measures by Credit Suisse to counter the twin crises: it said in a separate statement it faces an up t0 4.4 billion Swiss franc ($4.68 billion) hit from the implosion of Archegos, a prime brokerage client. This will tip it to a first-quarter loss of 900 million francs before taxes.

Slashing Payouts

CEO Thomas Gottstein called the Archegos loss «unacceptable» and said Credit Suisse is fully committed to addressing both it and Greensill, which are being investigated by outside parties. «Serious lessons will be learned,» said Gottstein, who took the top job just 13 months ago.

The Swiss bank will lower its dividend for last year by nearly one-third to 0.10 Swiss francs per share and eschew a vote asking for shareholder backing at its annual meeting – both highly unconventional measures which underscore the severity of its current crisis.

Top executives face lower bonuses this year, and Chairman Urs Rohner, who is emblematic for Credit Suisse's missteps piling up, will waive part of his pay. Rohner, who is overseeing a crisis response committee, hands the burgeoning problems to successor António Horta-Osório on April 29.

Dealmaker Advances

Credit Suisse is tapping a combination of current and former executives to replace Warner and Chin: it said it Joachim Oechslin will stand in temporarily as risk boss after Warner exits. Oechslin, currently a senior Credit Suisse advisor as well as director at insurer Swiss Re, held the risk job until two years ago.

The Swiss lender will install Christian Meissner atop the investment bank in place of Chin. Credit Suisse hired Meissner, an Austrian dealmaker who formerly oversaw corporate and investment banking at Bank of America, last fall for its private bank.

More to follow