The time for mea culpa has arrived. Credit Suisse held yesterday what will be its last shareholders’ meeting in the entity’s 167-year history. The president of the bank, Axel P. Lehmann, in his speech before the assembly, apologized for the disastrous management that led the entity to be absorbed by its rival UBS to avoid its disappearance. “I’m really sorry. I apologize that we were no longer able to stop the loss of trust that had accumulated over the years and for disappointing them,” the executive said yesterday. His voice cracking, he said: “Credit Suisse, with its long and rich history, is now taking a historic turn. We are deeply sorry, and personally, this moment saddens me as well.”
“Ultimately, there were only two options: agreement or bankruptcy,” he exclaimed, to defend the opportunity of the purchase by UBS. The Credit Suisse chief executive, apart from being self-critical, accused “social networks and digitalization of having stoked the banking fear that hit us at our most vulnerable point.”
However, it was clear to the shareholders who attended the meeting that those most responsible for the bank collapse were the managers of Credit Suisse. There were very heated interventions, in which more than one scream was uttered. Here are some.
“You have wanted to play in the banks’ Champions League at any cost, helping people to evade taxes.” “The same thing always happens: privatization of profits but nationalization of losses. In the end, it is the taxpayers who pay.†“You have pocketed about 32,000 million Swiss francs of bonds. Can you sleep at night?” “It is undesirable that there are so many managers who have continued to get paid, when some should have gone to jail.” “In the Middle Ages, for actions like these, those responsible for the entity would have been crucified.”
Alex Lehmann held his own and remained impassive under the crossfire of criticism. “It would have been worse if we had not reached an agreement with UBS. We would have lost up to 100% of the capital. It was an emergency situation, we had to see which options were safer. And the truth is, we didn’t have much to say, â€he acknowledged.
The Ethos Foundation, which advises minority shareholders, denounced the “greed and incompetence of its directors”, as well as salaries that reached “unimaginable heights”. “The government’s use of emergency powers to push this operation goes beyond legal and democratic norms,” ​​charged Dominik Gross of the Swiss Alliance of Development Organizations. “The government, the regulator and the central bank they have given few explanations about the loss guarantee of 9 billion state francs to UBS,†he added. By the way, the shareholders, after a vote, refused to pay 34 million fixed remuneration to the current executive leadership for the year 2022, but confirmed Lehmann as president until the merger is completed.
