As he faced shareholder wrath over the demise of the once-proud flagship, Credit Suisse ‘s chairman apologized for bringing the Swiss bank to the brink of bankruptcy.
Credit Suisse shareholders who would otherwise have had a say were effectively bypassed and eliminated by the hastily planned takeover by Zurich-based UBS, for which Switzerland invoked emergency legislation.
The 167-year-old bank was founded by Alfred Escher, a Swiss magnate affectionately known as King Alfred I, who helped to build the country’s railways and then the bank.
A group of protesters gathered in front of the concert venue where the meeting was held, and some of them erected a capsized boat to represent the demise of the bank.
Shareholder advisory firm Ethos criticized the “greed and incompetence of its managers” as well as pay that reached “unimaginable heights” as it got ready to confront top executives at the meeting.
It stated that thousands of jobs were in jeopardy and that investors had lost sizable sums of money.
The meeting is the first time since the takeover that Chairman Lehmann and Chief Executive Ulrich Koerner have addressed shareholders in public.
Before being sent into a tailspin by a shock brought on by the failure of Silicon Valley Bank in the United States, Credit Suisse had been attempting to move past its past and restructure.
After a deposit run, the Swiss government turned to UBS, which agreed to purchase Credit Suisse for 3 billion Swiss francs ($3.3 billion), or a small portion of its market value.
Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS), a proxy adviser in the United States, had previously chastised the bank’s management for “lack of oversight and poor stewardship.”
Credit Suisse announced in the run-up to Tuesday’s meeting that it had removed certain proposals from the agenda.
Among these is the resignation of management, which is typically a barometer of confidence. It also scrapped plans for a special bonus tied to the bank’s transformation strategy.
Credit Suisse’s near-collapse also resulted in the cancellation of $17 billion in Additional Tier 1 (AT1) debt.
AT1 investors have hired the law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan to seek compensation.
Meanwhile, the attorney general’s office announced on Sunday that Switzerland’s Federal Prosecutor has opened an investigation into the Credit Suisse takeover.
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