The Swiss bank faces sanctions from its home regulator over a damaging spy affair which led to the exit of its CEO and another top executive, who organized the scheme.
Finma is opening enforcement proceedings into Credit Suisse over a surveillance operation into a top executive, the Bern-based regulator said in a statement on Wednesday. This follows a now-completed third-party audit of the matter, under a probe opened in December.
Finma said its enforcement proceedings against the Zurich-based bank will focus on how the illicit spy operation, which was coordinated via messaging app Threema, were documented and controlled. The enforcement goes over territory it had hoped to wrap by hiring white-collar law firm Homburger to investigate.
Moving On
The regulatory enforcement comes nearly one year after the episode blew open. Most of the Credit Suisse executives involved have moved on: former top private banker Iqbal Khan, who was subject of the spy operation, now co-runs UBS' private bank.
CEO Tidjane Thiam was forced to exit in February and a close associate, Pierre-Oliver Bouée, was sacked. Chairman Urs Rohner, who was involved in what led to the episode in that he hammered out the terms of Khan's exit, is leaving in April.
Months More
The bank, which had unsuccessfully fought Finma's choice of law firm Quinn Emanuel for the audit, said it will continue to fully cooperate with its regulator. «Credit Suisse...is determined to support the effort to ensure a complete and expeditious conclusion of the review of this episode and incorporate lessons learned,» it said.
Spying on employees «is not part of the culture of Credit Suisse,» it said. The enforcement side of the probe can be expected to last several months more. More recently Credit Suisse has put miles between it and the scandal under new CEO Thomas Gottstein, a veteran Swiss investment banker.
