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Credit Suisse [CS], Switzerland's second-largest bank after UBS, has endured more than ten years of disappointment, losses, and scandal, and shareholders have suffered accordingly.
The shares have shed 23% over the past year and now trade around 9.40 Swiss Francs [CHF] after the shock weekend announcement that forced the resignation of its recently appointed [9 months ago] CEO Sir Antonio Horta-Osorio.
His crime: Following an 'internal investigation,' it was found he had committed 2 Covid infractions since his appointment. Once in the summer of 2021 for attending the Wimbledon tennis tournament and secondly sometime later visiting Lisbon; both trips without undergoing the mandated 10-day quarantining.
[All this poses troubling questions of company boards overseeing questionable Government directives and exacting their own punishment]
Credit Suisse has fallen a long way from its 2008 high of 81 SF [CHF] and all-time low of 7.30 [CHF] at the depth of the Global Covid sell-off in March 2020.
Like most global banks, CS suffered from the Global Financial Crisis of 2008-2010.
Before Horta's appointment, CS had been reported for a spying scandal involving one of its divisional directors, continuing serious financial exposure, including the recent American Archegos Capital Management scandal where it lost over $5.4 billion, the Australian/UK 'Greensill Capital's collapse that's amounted to $2.3 billion in losses and a Tuna shipping fraud in Madagascar involving approximately one billion dollars in losses.
Sir Antonio Horta-Osorio, recently knighted in 2021 by HM The Queen, is an international banker of some repute, having steered Bank Santander and Lloyds Bank away from perilous situations over the past decade. He was brought in to stop the freewheeling culture and bring the discipline of 'risk management' to Credit Suisse's many divisions.
Amid allegations of Xenophobia and racism [given the notoriously closed Swiss banking community], Portuguese national Antonio Horta-Osorio was allegedly seen as something of an outsider disturbing the cozy secretive world of Swiss Banking with his stringent tightening of risk management controls and new measures to try and recapture the once-revered status of Credit Suisse
Nonetheless, with the British Prime Minister facing public scrutiny for partying on an 'industrial scale,' the actions of politicians [correctly] and athletes worldwide have increased amid COVID-19 curbs as governments push their mandate to get their populations vaccinated.
Nevertheless, it can be expected that Sir Antonio will receive a sizeable Golden Good-Bye to soften the ignominy of a truncated contract.