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 4. Slashing Spending

Thiam estimates that Credit Suisse will be able to cut costs by 1.5 billion francs this year, which would mean the bank overshoots this year's stage of savings targets. Cutting a total of 5,400 jobs by year-end puts him within striking distance of this target.

A look at last year puts this into context: spending actually rose by 2 percent, while Credit Suisse only shed a net 400 jobs. This means that Credit Suisse may have cut the 5,400 jobs, but added them back in other areas.

Upshot: Credit Suisse has neither cut costs nor laid off staff in any substantial way.

5. Targets Need Adjusting

Thiam's promise to double pretax profit by 2018 was cast into doubt just weeks after he announced it last year. The one-year mark seems more appropriate to take another look at the target. Thiam laid out clear targets for the global private banking division, or IWM, Asia-Pacific, and Switzerland in particular.

SUB's pretax profit surged 90 percent on the year and IWM rose 24 percent, but Asia was 6 percent lower. The Swiss unit's profit of 758 million francs seems far off the 2.1 billion franc target by 2018, while the overall bank's pretax profit of 41 million francs shrank by 74 percent on the year.

Upshot: it's time for Thiam to revisit his profit targets in view of the gains achieved after one year.

6. Strengthen Capital, Avoid Risks

Credit Suisse wants a ratio of at least 13 percent on one of the toughest measures of financial solidity, common equity Tier 1 or CET 1, by 2018. The bank managed to lift the ratio to 12 percent despite provisions for future legal cases, and also improved its leverage ratio after chopping leverage exposure by 29 billion francs and lowering risk-weighted assets by 3 billion sequentially.

A brisk reduction of these risks is a matter close to Thiam's heart after he was heavily criticized for the hefty investment banking write-down earlier this year, so he has notched up a win in this quarter.

Upshot: Thiam wants to pay out surplus capital to shareholders from 2020. Before he does so, Credit Suisse needs to fulfill tougher capital requirements which take full effect from 2019. This underscores the urgency with which he must continue to offload risks and build up capital. The litigation provisions taken in the most recent quarter highlight that fines and penalties for past misbehavior will hit the bank where it hurts most: its capital.