The Swiss bank plans to unveil a new bonus model next year. This follows outsize risk-taking from several units, leading to a painful scandal and huge losses.
Zurich-based Credit Suisse will review and redesign how it pays bonuses, Chairman António Horta Osório and CEO Thomas Gottstein told «NZZ am Sonntag» (behind paywall, in German) in a joint interview on Sunday. The details are due in the first six months of next year.
«We will design our variable compensation to eliminate any incentive to enter too much risk...we will more strongly link risk-taking and economic profits to compensation,» Horta Osório said.
The 57-year-old Portuguese and British banker is in the unenviable position of arriving at the Swiss bank shortly after two major scandals imploded: Archegos and Greensill.
Shareholder Backing
The two bankers this week presented Credit Suisse's strategy, which left many investors underwhelmed, as finews.asia commented. Horta Osório said that the Swiss bank's biggest shareholders – among them Qatar, Blackrock, and U.S. mutual fund Harris Associates – back the overhaul.
The interview represents the second joint outing for Horta Osório and Gottstein in nine weeks, as finews.com noted. Besides Credit Suisse's financial, strategic, capital, culture, and risk worries, they are coping with the damage from a press report of discord between the two men.
