Credit Suisse’s board of directors has to rule over its chairman. The bank’s regulations describe the process and reveal a surprising onlooker.
Switzerland’s second-largest bank came under fire when its chairman António Horta-Osório failed to comply with coronavirus regulations, choosing to travel rather than to self-isolate on two occasions.
What looks like a minor misdemeanor has long since become a delicate matter for the bank with major repercussions. The incidents were investigated internally as the bank aimed to derive adequate measures from them, as finews.com first reported.
But what is the decisive factor for the bank to rule on the misconduct of its chairman?
Annual Assessment
According to the bank's rules, the chairman of the board of directors does not participate in discussions about his own performance.
A look into the articles of association reveals that the governance and nominations committee (GNC) keeps a close eye on the 14-member board of directors and on the chairman in particular.
The GNC leads the performance evaluation of the board of directors, including the chairman and the members of the executive board in a meeting that takes place at least once a year. A COVID rulebreak is also likely to take place in such a meeting.
Roche CEO Pulls All the Strings
Roche CEO Severin Schwan, is the lead independent director within the GNC, while other members include Christian Gellerstad, Axel Lehmann, Richard Meddings and Kai Nargolwala.
Laughing Third Party
The whole procedure is likely to please one person in particular: Credit Suisse Group CEO Thomas Gottstein. As an «onlooker,» he is well informed about everything as the CEO usually attends the meetings.
Andrew Isbester contributed to this article.
