A technology veteran at Credit Suisse is setting up shop independently with two former associates after quietly departing last month, finews.com has learned.
Ex-Credit Suisse top executive Mario Crameri is launching digital boutique NXT, according to LinkedIn and data from Switzerland’s commercial register. He is partnering with Fabian Wendel, also a former technology executive at the Swiss lender, on the start-up which advises on digital transformation.
A computer scientist, Crameri spent more than 20 years in all in Credit Suisse's technology and was instrumental in setting up CSX, the bank’s response to upstarts like Revolut. He was sidelined in a reorganization last August when a direct banking push he oversaw was merged with digitalization under Anke Bridge Haux.
Swath of Exits
Wendel worked at Credit Suisse for 16 years, most recently as a program manager in digital banking. He and Crameri have enlisted a former business analyst at Credit Suisse, Urban Lutz, for NXT, and are set to next month hire a senior executive with experience in banking and management consulting, according to their website.
They aren't the only technologists to leave Credit Suisse recently. Global digital transformation head Homa Siddiqui is on her way out according to media reports, and Falguni Desai, its global head of strategy and transformation since 2018, was recently hired by Microsoft.
Technology In C-Suite
Ironically, Crameri's departure coincides with Credit Suisse’s elevation of technology into top management. The Swiss bank is poaching Goldman Sachs banker Joanna Hannaford as its operating and technology chief, from January.
Credit Suisse last had a technologist represented in top management in 2012, in Karl Landert. Since then, IT has been largely the purview of finance chief David Mathers as well as a series of operating chiefs.
