Finma harshly criticizes former CS management
Published: Tuesday, Dec 19th 2023, 12:30
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According to its own assessment, FINMA comprehensively fulfilled its supervisory duties during the CS crisis. However, those responsible at the supervisory authority harshly criticized the bank's management at the time when presenting their report on the crisis.
Finma had already intervened "early and resolutely", emphasized Thomas Hirschi, Head of the Banks division, to the media on Tuesday. However, it is not the responsibility of the supervisory authorities to prevent a financial institution from collapsing.
However, Finma's instructions apparently met with repeated resistance from Credit Suisse management. CS managers reacted with demands for regulatory relief, among other things: "It's hard to believe," said interim director Brigitte Rutishauser. For Hirschi, too, there was no other bank in Switzerland that implemented Finma's instructions so poorly.
Overall, CS management was also unable to draw the necessary conclusions from Finma's early intervention, criticized the Head of the Banking division. Among other things, there were clear deficits in the bank's management culture as well as an extremely inadequate risk culture.
Early preparation
The supervisory authority had already asked CS management to prepare emergency measures in August 2022 - i.e. well before the first liquidity crisis in autumn 2022, Finma officials emphasized. This also included preparations for a possible sale of the bank.
Without the Finma measures, the big bank might have gone under as early as fall 2022, Hirschi was convinced. In addition, the Finma orders would have meant that the takeover by UBS could have taken place "within days" in March 2023.
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