The Swiss voice in the world since 1935

Credit Suisse results impress despite damaging spy scandal

Tidjane Thima
Thiam says the bank is well positioned to achieve future profitable growth. Keystone/ennio Leanza

Credit Suisse CEO Tidjane Thiam has reiterated that he had nothing to do with the spying scandal that recently rocked the bank. Thiam insisted that the debacle has not damaged business as the bank presented better than expected third quarter results.

The bank doubled profits for the period to CHF881 million ($886 million) compared to Q3 2018. Its International Wealth Management division, which used to be run by Iqbal Khan who was at the centre of the spygate row, saw pre-tax income rise 43% to CHF539 million.

Wealth management returns were, however, boosted by the recent CHF131 million sale of its InvestLab fund.

Thiam announced himself satisfied with the financial results that follow a highly damaging scandal involving surveillance of Khan after he acrimoniously left the bank. The spygate affair was blamed on a single executive who stepped down from the bank earlier this month.

On Wednesday, Thiam again insisted that he had known nothing of the “inappropriate and disproportionate” surveillance of Khan. Speaking to Swiss public broadcaster SRF, he said that business was normal despite the reputational fall-out.

“Our client advisors had discussions with many clients about the affair, because they had questions about it. But all our client advisors stressed that it had no negative impact on their banking business,” he said.

“The corporate culture of a bank must not be assessed on the basis of such an isolated individual case,” he added.

More


Popular Stories

Most Discussed

News

More Russian assets frozen in Switzerland

More

More Russian assets frozen in Switzerland

This content was published on The value of frozen Russian assets in Switzerland currently stands at CHF 7.4 billion, the Swiss Confederation announced on Tuesday. This represents an increase of CHF 1.6 billion in one year. Additional assets have been identified, according to the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs.

Read more: More Russian assets frozen in Switzerland
Increase in business start-ups in the 1st quarter

More

Increase in Swiss business start-ups in Q1

This content was published on The number of business start-ups in Switzerland accelerated in the first three months of the year, with entrepreneurs being particularly dynamic in Central Switzerland, Basel and Geneva.

Read more: Increase in Swiss business start-ups in Q1
Swiss and French armies train together

More

Swiss and French armies train together

This content was published on French and Swiss armoured and artillery units will train together to strengthen the defence capabilities of the Swiss army.

Read more: Swiss and French armies train together

In compliance with the JTI standards

More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative

You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!

If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.

SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR

SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR