A Credit Suisse top executive reportedly got aggro with a rival at one of Zurich's most fashionable, upscale restaurants – the third such incident in short order. The Swiss bank as «Fight Club»?
Credit Suisse's Swiss boss Thomas Gottstein (pictured below in a Keystone image) told an associate of UBS wealth co-head Iqbal Khan that he would «destroy» both men, Swiss weekly «Neue Zuercher Zeitung am Sonntag» reported (in German, behind paywall).
The Swiss ex-investment banker reportedly made the remarks in the middle of Kronenhalle, a Zurich power lunch venue where the rich and powerful sup on 58 swiss franc ($59) plates of speciality sliced veal with roesti surrounded by works by Chagall, Mirò, Braque, and Matisse adorning the walls.
The episode would pass for banter among Swiss bankers in any other setting, but for the fact that it is the third incident of Credit Suisse bankers behaving badly to surface since last month. The bank is reeling from a spy scandal that reportedly began when CEO Tidjane Thiam and Khan, while still at Credit Suisse, had to be physically separated at a cocktail hosted by the CEO. Last week, Swiss blog «Inside Paradeplatz» (in German) reported that a top Credit Suisse Swiss banker manhandled a neighbor in a parking garage on Zuerichberg, a ritzy area overlooking the city.
Supping Amid Fine Art
The Gottstein episode itself is unremarkable and wouldn't ordinarily warrant press coverage: bankers get into it all the time – even in Zurich, with its carefully-tended tradition of gentility and secrecy among Switzerland's largest wealth managers. And Kronenhalle – a 95-year-old restaurant where regulars reportedly booed former UBS Chairman Marcel Ospel during the financial crisis – is as likely a place as any for it to happen.
Giving as Good as Gets
Gottstein, as most local journalists know, can give as good as he gets. But the seeming series of events involving angry bankers from CEO Thiam to several top executives raises questions: is the tone at the bank degrading into an openly aggressive one?
The question can be asked but – unfortunately – not fully answered. Credit Suisse still hasn't provided full transparency over the bare-knuckles Thiam-Khan affair. The series of skirmishes highlight the bank's famously competitive DNA (it previously openly encouraged units to compete with each other).
It also indicates that all of Credit Suisse's C-suite are feeling the heat from the Khan-spy episode, now in its fourth week. The ugly scandal puts the entire bank in an uncomfortable spotlight, as finews.com reported earlier on Monday. Credit Suisse tried to stem the rot by dismissing two bankers who arranged for the detectives, but it remains unclear whether it can successfully leave the episode behind.
