Credit Suisse cut Thiam’s pay by 15%

Bloomberg

Credit Suisse Group AG cut former Chief Executive Officer Tidjane Thiam’s pay by about 15% in his last year in charge, after the Swiss bank became embroiled in a spying scandal that led to his ouster.
“Mr. Thiam has taken accountability for the events and accepted a reduction of his non-financial assessment score,” board member Kai Nargolwala wrote in the report. The executive’s total compensation declined to $10.9 million, Credit Suisse said in a compensation report published on Wednesday.
The bank posted its best annual result under Thiam in 2019 after his first years in charge were marked by losses stemming from a major restructuring. The scandal, in which former executive Iqbal Khan was shadowed by private detectives, led to a reduction of ex-CEO’s 2019 bonus, the bank said. Credit Suisse’s overall bonus pool was reduced by 1% from a year
earlier to 3.17 billion francs.
Chairman URS Rohner said to shareholders that succession planning for his role “is well underway and progressing according to plan.”
The executive said he will stand for re-election this year but won’t seek an extension at the bank’s general meeting in 2021.
Thiam was ousted from Credit Suisse last month in a showdown with Rohner and replaced by 20-year bank veteran Thomas Gottstein. Pierre-Olivier Bouee, a key lieutenant of the former CEO who took the fall after inquiries into the surveillance of two executive board members, will forfeit his bonuses as he was “less than forthcoming” during the bank’s investigations into the spying.
At cross-town rival UBS Group AG, Chief Executive Officer Sergio Ermotti saw his pay fall 11% in his last full year on the job as the Swiss bank cut bonuses across the company after lowering its financial targets.
Since being replaced by Gottstein, Thiam has been nominated to join the board of directors of French luxury goods group Kering SA.
Credit Suisse also said on Wednesday that it’s reviewing a plan to buy back as much as 1.5 billion francs of shares this year due to uncertainty over the coronavirus. The bank purchased 325 million shares through March 13 as part of the plan.