After the grounding of Credit Suisse on Sunday March 19, 2023, the entire political class expressed its indignation at the scandal of the management of this 167-year-old bank, the flagship of Swiss excellence on the markets. When it happened, it had been shaking its head for several years, but no one was able to stop its successive leaders in their highly speculative bad choices.
This is what emerges broadly from the Parliament’s investigation, the report of which was unveiled this Friday. The supervisory authority, FINMA, tried to warn its managers regarding the increasingly degraded financial situation of the establishment. But the law is strong in Switzerland to protect banking business and Credit Suisse has continued to do it its way, while distributing money in high doses.
We want to recall that in 2022, while the bank recorded a net loss of 7.3 billion francs, the 18 members of Credit Suisse management shared 32.2 million francs in remuneration and the board of administration 10.4 million, including 3.2 million for its president Axel Lehmann. In the aftermath of the debacle, many politicians, not just on the left, said that these leaders should definitely be held accountable.
But his on-the-spot statements are now ancient history. The CEP report can only note the harm that has been done, but cannot initiate proceedings against anyone. Since the absorption of Credit Suisse by UBS, the prevailing impression in the Federal Parliament is that business has resumed and that the page has already been turned.
Certainly, in the rest of the report, proposals will be made to better regulate the last of our large systemic banks at the global level, UBS. But despite political demands, it is the bankers who will put pressure on Parliament and discreetly set the rules of the game. The influence of the latter in the ranks of the bourgeois parties encourages them to become very reluctant when it comes to toughening the banking regulation, and this, as a matter of principle.
Because the financial system is based on the notion of gain and risk. In this merciless game, Credit Suisse ultimately lost. And it is not impossible that UBS could lose one day.
