The Swiss bank's long-standing CEO in Brazil plans to leave later this year. His exit comes at a crucial juncture for Credit Suisse – both at home as well as in South America.

José Olympio Pereira will hand over the reins of Credit Suisse's Brazilian business by year-end, according to a memo seen by finews.com and first reported by Brazilian outlet «Pipeline» (behind paywall, in Portuguese). Pereira is a heavyweight who has been with the Swiss lender or banks it acquired for nearly his entire career.

His exit comes amid one of the biggest crises in the 156-year-old lender's history due to the twin hits of Greensill and just three weeks later Archegos. The latter blew an $4.7 billion hole in its profits in the first quarter and prompted a swift cash call from staunchly loyal big shareholders as well as some super-wealthy individuals.

Long-Standing Career

Pereira began his career at Banco de Investimentos Garantia, which Credit Suisse acquired in 1998 for $675 million. He became CEO of Brazil for Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette after the Swiss bank acquired in in 1998 for $11.5 billion.

 In 2004, Credit Suisse advanced him to head of investment banking in Brazil, and in 2012 CEO of its overall activities in the country. Brazil is strategic to Credit Suisse, which is committed to investing further in this priority market, according to the memo.

Frenzied Activity

The Brazilian unit, which had 230 billion reais ($4.32 billion) in assets under management of wealthy clients last year according to «Bloomberg», was recently the subject of merger speculation. Credit Suisse denied it was in talks to sell the unit. It had promoted Marcello Chilov to lead the private banking unit last year, which seems to have led to a spate of exits.

It is also one of the largest investment banks in Brazil: Pereira told the news agency fees surged last year amid frenzied capital market activity, especially for debt.

Credit Suisse hired Ivan Monteiro, who briefly ran Petrobras, as a vice chairman for investment banking. Local Chairman Ilan Goldfajn, Brazil's former top central banker, will lead the succession search together with Pereira, according to the memo.