The bonus for ex-Credit Suisse CEO Tidjane Thiam for 2019 is reportedly hotly contested within Credit Suisse.
The math around former CEO Tidjane Thiam's bonus for this year is reportedly the subject of debate among directors of Credit Suisse, Swiss weekly «Sonntagszeitung» (behind paywall, in German) reported. The nub of the debate is whether the ex-CEO's bonus is calculated on so-called clean figures – smoothed of factors like disposals – or on profits attributable to shareholders.
A spokesman for the Swiss bank said Credit Suisse's pay committee, which is overseen by ex-banker Kai Nargolwala, will decide on the methodology. Besides the Singaporean, the committee is made up of Saudi dealmaker Michael Klein, Harvard professor Iris Bohnet, and Pictet's former top private banker, Christian Gellerstad.
«True» vs Smooth Profit
Thiam left Zurich-based Credit Suisse amid a surge in profits – helped by several one-time windfalls including taking stock, anew, of what its seat on the Swiss stock exchange is worth, as finews.com reported. The Swiss newspaper insinuates that Credit Suisse cherry-picked the result.
One-time results like those in the Swiss bank's most recent results are normally stripped out for bonus calculations – however, the boosts were included in an «adjusted» pre-tax profit of 5 billion Swiss francs ($5.1 billion). This form of profit reads to Thiam's bonus: metrics like return on equity change based on «true» or smoothed profits, and they are determinants for the CEO's payout.
Last year, he earned 9.5 million francs, of which 3 million was fixed. Pay is a hot-button topic at Credit Suisse for years: Thiam and Chairman Urs Rohner were forced to climb down on bonus claims three years ago amid massive shareholder pressure.
