Credit Suisse's chairman is doing untold damage to his credibility – against the backdrop of urgency at the embattled Swiss bank, senior contributor Katharina Bart writes.
Just when Credit Suisse thought it couldn’t get worse, their chairman proved them wrong: António Horta-Osório (pictured below) broke Swiss quarantine and apparently did quite a lot of trying to skip out on it before deciding to ignore it altogether.
Seven months into his tenure in Zurich, the 57-year-old is being demystified, by a crisis of his own making (which sounds familiar). There is no delegating it away and no scapegoat to be sacrificed, as many suspect was done in «spygate». Horta-Osório owns this.
Paid As Paragon Of Virtue
To be sure, mistakes are fine and they will happen – Credit Suisse can tell you a few things about that. But Horta-Osório’s agenda is one of using sunlight as a disinfectant on Credit Suisse’s moral rot.
In fact, it represents a huge part of why Horta-Osório is compensated as handsomely as was predecessor Urs Rohner, who originally was headed for a $5.1 million payday until he had to back down when the extent of Archegos’ wreckage at Credit Suisse surfaced. Part of the deal is to instigate and embody a cultural shift – effectively, Horta-Osório is paid to be a paragon of virtue.
Kibosh On Dubai Trip
He may be surprised at how quickly the issue has gained traction in Switzerland, where bankers are already openly asking themselves if he will be forced to step down. He shouldn’t be surprised: his excuse – that he has unwittingly broken the rules – is being exposed as flimsy, it emerged on Friday.
CEO Thomas Gottstein is party to a strikingly different example: he is one of the high-ranking bankers and politicians including Julius Baer boss Philipp Rickenbacher and finance minister Ueli Maurer who were due to travel to the world expo in Dubai in four weeks.
The group on Thursday decided to postpone the trip – partly out of deference to the Swiss government’s recently-tightened COVID restrictions. Some of Switzerland’s highest-ranking bankers decided they didn’t want to be seen doing something that normal citizens either aren’t allowed to or face heavier restrictions on.
Leading On Empty Words
This is a deference that Horta-Osório, recently knighted by Queen Elizabeth, either lacks or failed to display here. The damage is immeasurable – for very little gain (Credit Suisse’s board meetings this week, for example, are being conducted virtually anyway).
Amidst Credit Suisse’s other problems, this is an entirely homemade one of trust and credibility that sits squarely at the Portuguese-British banker’s feet. You had one job: how can you expect your employees – especially the more than 16,000 on the ground in Switzerland – to follow if you lead with empty words?
