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Bloomberg
Credit Suisse Group AG Chief Executive Officer TidjaneThiam is devoting more face time to top private bankers and holding talks on boosting pay as he seeks to prevent defections after Iqbal Khan’s exit.
Thiam has been reaching out to the best revenue generators at the international wealth business to discuss compensation and career prospects since Khan left in the summer, the people said, asking not to be identified because the matter is private.
The CEO is paying particular attention to emerging markets such as Brazil, the Middle East and emerging Europe, the people said.
Credit Suisse is seeking to stem a spate of defections after Khan, who was popular with the private bankers, joined Credit Suisse’s biggest rival UBS as co-head of the wealth management business. Thiam began the push to meet more wealth management executives in the summer before it slowed after the spying scandal broke out, the people said.
A spokeswoman for the bank had no immediate comment.
Thiam and Khan’s working relationship broke down in recent months as a personal dispute escalated into a surveillance scandal that cost Thiam one of his key lieutenants.
Credit Suisse has recently lost private banking teams to Julius Baer, Deutsche Bank and Pictet& Cie amid the recent spying scandal which erupted into the open last month after Khan and private detectives engaged to follow him had a confrontation in the streets of Zurich.
Thiam — who lost a key ally when Chief Operating Officer Pierre Olivier Bouee took the fall for the botched surveillance operation — recently expressed remorse during a meeting with top managers that he had not been more closely in touch with the bank’s biggest clients in wealth management, according to one person present at the meeting.
The bank installed international wealth management chief financial officer Philipp Wehle to replace Khan as head of the business.