The chairman of the board of directors of the Swiss bank Credit Suisse, which was hit by financial scandals, has lost his job after violating the country's quarantine rules. According to the bank, chief supervisor António Horta-Osório was replaced with immediate effect by the Swiss Axel Lehmann after an investigation by the board of directors.
The Portuguese-British dual national had made a faux pas on November 28: After a trip from Great Britain to Zurich, he should have been in quarantine for ten days, but the top banker left the country in one after just three days Private jet.
A newspaper ("Blick") made the case public. A day later, the bank said Horta-Osório had reported himself.
He commented: "I regret that some of my personal actions have caused difficulties for the bank and have affected my ability to represent it internally and externally. I have therefore come to the conclusion that my resignation at this time is in the interest of the bank and is its shareholder."
Switzerland had imposed the quarantine rule for arrivals from some countries in November. It was in effect at the time of Horta-Osório's flight from the UK, but has since been lifted.
Horta-Osório took office in April 2021 to reform the bank's risk management after two financial scandals (Archegos and Greensill). The emergency settlement of funds operated together with the now insolvent company Greensill with a volume of around ten billion dollars (8.8 billion euros) and the five billion francs (4.8 billion euros) collapse of the customer Archegos Capital had previously had several managers cost the job, the rating agency Moody's downgraded Credit Suisse AG's debt and deposit ratings by one notch (from "Aa3" to "A1") because of "insufficient risk awareness".
Credit Suisse is the second largest Swiss bank and, with total assets of $813 billion (S&P Global Market Intelligence Report 2020), is one of the 50 largest banks in the world (41st place).
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