Antonio Horta-Osório’s Turbulent Times at Credit Suisse

Antonio Horta-Osório joined Credit Suisse shortly after a $10.1 billion fund blow-up, and $5 billion in losses requiring a shareholder infusion. finews.com looks at what he can – and can’t – control.

Former U.K. prime minister Harold Macmillan is reputed to have said the greatest challenge for any leader was: «Events, dear boy, events.» This certainly applies to Antonio Horta-Osório.

The 57-year-old British Portuguese banker took over as chairman at Credit Suisse after its finances, capital, and reputation had taken a severe hit from the collapse of the Archegos hedge fund and supply-chain finance company Greensill Capital.

finews.com stacks Horta-Osório’s actions since he replaced Urs Rohner as chairman four months ago against the headwinds outside of his control:

1. Shoring Up Confidence

António Horta-Osório’s Actions		Outside Influences
April 30	Horta-Osório lays focus on risk management, strategy, culture after 96.45 percent of shareholders back his board election.
May 4	Horta-Osório buys $1.2 million of Credit Suisse shares with own money. Three months later, he purchases another $1 million worth of stock in the Swiss bank.
June 12	Horta-Osório is knighted by Queen Elizabeth for «services to financial services and voluntary services to mental healthcare and to culture» while CEO of Lloyds Bank.
July 1	Horta-Osório says «I am certain that we can lead the bank back to where it be-longs, but it will take time,» in an interview widely viewed as a trust-building exercise.	July 1	Credit Suisse’s largest shareholder, the Qatar Investment Authority, hikes stake to over six percent.
July 5	Credit Suisse poaches Joanna Hannaford from Goldman Sachs as its new operating and technology boss, from January 2022.
July 22	Credit Suisse pledges retention payments as it hemorrhages staff.
July 29	Credit Suisse’s top priority is to get Greensill fund investors’ money back, CEO Thomas Gottstein says during second-quarter results.	July 29	Credit Suisse suffers net outflows at its flagship private bank in the second quarter, raising the specter of scandals at its investment bank and fund arm spilling over to business with the world’s wealthy.
Aug 13	Proposes UBS veteran Axel Lehmann to head board’s risk panel, and long-term associate, and risk manager at Lloyds Bank Juan Colombas as board member. Calls Oct. 1 shareholder EGM to elect them.

2. Archegos Inquest

António Horta-Osório’s Actions		Outside Influences
		June 17	Swiss central bank says looking into Archegos and Greensill as part of annual stability reporting.
July 9	Credit Suisse sets up counterparty risk management under ex-trader and risk executive Amélie Perrier in its investment bank. Three weeks later, the unit’s risk chief is axed and several former executives are reinstated.
July 27	Goldman veteran David Wildermuth appointed chief risk officer to be in place by February 2022.
July 29	Credit Suisse makes public an excoriating legal review of its handling of Archegos and revealing countless loopholes and shortcomings.

3. Greensill Damage Control
Lex Greensill (Image: greensill.com)
António Horta-Osório’s Actions		Outside Influences
		May 14	U.K. Serious Fraud Office launches probe into suspected fraud, fraudulent trading and money laundering at GFG including its financing arrangements with Greensill.
May 27	Credit Suisse severs relationship with Softbank – a huge step given founder Masayoshi Son was a wealthy client – over Greensill.
May 27	Standstill agreement with Sanjeev Gupta, a British industrial investor.
		May 28	Credit Suisse’s commodity bankers reportedly warned internally about lending to GFG in 2018, after blacklisting a Gupta-owned unit. Trafigura, a commodities house, reportedly flagged to Credit Suisse a suspicious invoice from a Gupta-owned company.
June 10	Credit Suisse permanently replaces Michel Degen, who was instrumental in setting up the Greensill supply-chain funds. Two weeks later, Degen is quietly removed from the commercial register of the bank’s Swiss asset management unit.
July 2	Credit Suisse repays $750 million to Greensill fund holders, with another $400 million repaid five weeks later. Repayments begin to slow as asset recovery stalls.

4. Exodus Begins Amid Measures

António Horta-Osório’s Actions		Outside Influences
		May 3	Julius Baer poaches Credit Suisse team of bankers catering to wealthy Latin Americans.
		May 20	UBS poaches Jean-Marc Botteri, a Credit Suisse managing director who is seen as a key ally of Iqbal Khan.
June 4	Investment bank head Christian Meissner appoints co-operating chiefs.
June 9	CS agrees with Hamza Lemssouguer, a star fixed income trader, to part company on Arini, a private investment vehicle which the Swiss bank was to have backed and launched early this year.
June 24	Horta-Osório describes the investment bank as an «ancillary service» of the wealth management business to the dismay of those working there.		Beginning in May, big names including FIG banker Alejandro Przygoda, TMT banker Diren Shah, and Middle East wealth manager Georges El Khoury also defect for the competition.
June 25	Credit Suisse hires Zarina Mahmud as new diversity chief from Lloyds.

5. Other Legacy Scandals

António Horta-Osório’s Actions		Outside Influences
July 26	Credit Suisse and Iqbal Khan bury «spygate» nearly two years after the fact.
July 29	Pushes back repayment of a total of $2.8 billion to U.S. sub-prime mortgage holders, part of a 2016 settlement with the U.S. authorities.
		Aug 3	«Tuna bond» trial, a scandal involving loans to Mozambique, set for September 2023 in London.