Swiss Finance Minister Karin Keller-Sutter has criticised the legal obstacles preventing company executives' bonuses being reclaimed.
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“Today, there are probably too many obstacles to the legal liability of company directors,” she told the SonntagsBlick newspaper in an interview published on Sunday.
Asked whether the former directors of the Swiss bank Credit Suisse should repay part of their bonuses, Keller-Sutter said the Swiss Code of Obligations provides for liability. “But the Swissair case shows just how difficult it is to hold certain people to account,” she added. “I think this should be looked at closely.”
In March, Credit Suisse was forced into an emergency takeover by rival UBS to avert bankruptcy. The demise of the 167-year-old banking institution sent shockwaves through the global financial system and is viewed as a grave embarrassment in Switzerland.
Keller-Sutter said the public does not want high salaries to be paid without any responsibility being taken. “Bonuses must be designed in such a way that they do not encourage excessive risk-taking,” she said.
The Swiss finance minister has been extremely critical of the Credit Suisse management since the takeover saying they failed to “take responsibility for itself, for its employees, for its clients, but also for Switzerland”.
“We got into this situation because a bank had obviously made the wrong decisions over the years,” she declared last week.
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