Credit Suisse plans ‘maximum flexibility’ remote work model

Bloomberg

Credit Suisse Group AG said it’s planning to introduce a work model that gives the bank employees in Switzerland “maximum flexibility,” joining global peers in making remote working arrangements more permanent.
The approximately 13,000 employees of the universal bank in Switzerland will, depending on their role, be able to decide with their teams and line managers how much of their time they want to spend outside the office and which days to be in, according to a statement from the bank.
“As we prepare for a post-pandemic world, our aim is to
become more flexible and agile when it comes to working arrangements,” the CEO of Credit Suisse Andre Helfenstein said in the statement.
The bank said the roll-out of its new policy to the rest of the roughly 49,000 employees in total across four business divisions and other geographic regions will be determined by guidelines related to Covid-19 pandemic in each country.
The Swiss lender joins a wave of competitors including UBS Group AG, Deutsche Bank AG and Citigroup Inc. that are all set to allow employees to work remotely at least part of the week. Unlike peers, however, Credit Suisse has not specified the number of days employees must work in the office.
Global banks are diverging in their approach to the return-to-office, with some using flexibility as a recruiting edge. Others, including US banks JPMorgan Chase & Co and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. have been pushing to get their bankers back behind their desks in a manner closer to practices before the pandemic.
At Credit Suisse, the measures were launched after the bank conducted a 6-month study of how its employees performed under various work models. The study found that employees with the most flexible work models were the happiest and most productive, and going forward wanted to spend two-thirds of their time from home or another non-office location. The bank is also developing other technology-based tools to promote collaboration in a virtual environment.
Meanwhile, Credit Suisse Group named Joanne Hannaford as its new chief technology and operations officer and appointed her to the bank’s executive board, marking new Chairman Antonio Horta-Osorio’s first major hire at the
embattled lender.
Hannaford’s appointment is effective January 1, when current COO James Walker will step down and relocate to the US as deputy chief executive officer of the bank’s entity there, according to a press release. Hannaford, who joins from Goldman Sachs Group Inc., will be based in Zurich and lead the bank’s digital and IT strategy, reporting to Chief Executive
Officer Thomas Gottstein.
“Technology is and will increasingly be a key success factor in financial services and with her skills, Joanne is well positioned to lead our strategic efforts going forward,” Horta-Osorio said in the statement.
Hannaford is the fourth executive board change the bank has made in as many months, with the Swiss lender’s leadership undergoing a transformation after the dual blow-ups of Archegos Capital Management and Greensill Capital caused billions of dollars in losses. Chief risk and compliance officer Lara Warner and the head of the investment bank Brian Chin were swiftly removed in the aftermath, while head of asset management Eric Varvel stepped down from the executive board but remains at the bank.
The lender has offered some staff in wealth management and the investment bank retention bonuses as a way to curb a stream of departures in recent months.

The bank’s board of directors also saw the head of the risk committee, Andreas Gottschling, exit the day before the annual general meeting where he was due to face a difficult re-election vote after top shareholders called for his departure.
Investor Harris Associates has also previously called for the clearout of “the people who are responsible for accepting a culture that doesn’t balance risk and return.”
Horta-Osorio, just two months on the job, has vowed to examine risk, strategy and the bank’s culture in charting a way through one of the most difficult periods at the lender since the financial crisis. He still needs to fill the interim chief risk and chief compliance officer roles, which were combined under Warner, though the bank has yet to decide whether they will remain that way. Joachim Oechslin is interim chief risk officer and sits on the executive board while Thomas Grotzer is interim head of compliance but does not sit on the board.
Last week Credit Suisse said it’s making a further $750 million payment to investors in its supply-chain finance funds that invested in Greensill products, though warned there’s still uncertainty over how much will ultimately be recovered. The lender has offered some staff in wealth management and the investment bank retention bonuses as a way to curb a stream of departures — more than 50 from the investment bank alone — in recent months.
The bank is also considering an overhaul of its wealth management businesses that would consolidate regional units led by Helman Sitohang in Asia, Andre Helfenstein in Switzerland, and Philipp Wehle who is responsible for Europe, Middle East, Africa and Latin America, people familiar with the matter said earlier. All three sit on the executive board.
Hannaford held a number of senior roles across Goldman Sachs’ engineering department in London and New York and was named a partner in 2014, according to the statement. She serves as an advisor to the UK government and received the Women in Banking and Finance Award for Achievement in 2020.