Ex-Credit Suisse CEO Tidjane Thiam's bonus was docked last year because of a spy scandal. Thanks to a cash windfall, his actual payday in 2019 was his largest in his five-year tenure.
Credit Suisse cut ex-CEO Tidjane Thiam's pay by 17 percent last year to 10.2 million Swiss francs ($10.4 million), due to the both performance targets as well as non-financial criterial, the Swiss bank said in its annual report published on Wednesday.
The «non-financial» measure refers to scandal surrounding a covert surveillance scheme on ex-Credit Suisse top private banker Iqbal Khan which last month cost Thiam his job. The 57-year-old French-Ivorian executive popped up last month as a director at Kering, a French luxury goods maker.
Richest Year
Ironically, 2019 represented Thiam's richest year at Credit Suisse, which he joined in 2015 with a restructuring mandate from Chairman Urs Rohner. Thanks to instruments from five years ago maturing, Thiam's actual take-home pay was 6.9 million francs last year, up from 5.5 million in 2018.
How? Cash promised in 2015 was delivered, and the first installment of a 2016 award and bonus money from last year kicked in (the latter is subject to shareholder approval). Thiam, who handed over to Thomas Gottstein seven weeks ago, remained the highest earner in the 11-person top management.
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