Andreas Gottschling

Andreas Gottschling

29. April 2021

 

 

So let’s see if we understand this: Credit Suisse’s “risk management” was exposed as seemingly incompetent in the wake of taking massive risks in respect to the 2 most recent Credit Suisse disasters of Greensill and Archegos and even for some time before. It was not unnoticed how Credit Suisse has lurched from one risk management crisis to the next. Even the (now ex-) chief risk and compliance officer Lara Warner, accepted some accountability and quit Credit Suisse earlier this month as losses mounted.

 

However the chairperson of Credit Suisse’s risk committee, Andreas Gottschling, does not believe he has any reason to give up his post?

 

The «Financial Times» has reported that many large shareholders and shareholder advisors, such as Harris Associates, Norway’s oil fund, Ethos Foundation and U.S. shareholder adviser Glass Lewis propose to vote against the reelection of Andreas Gottschling. Andreas Gottschling , a 53-year old German former consultant has been Credit Suisse’s risk committee chair since 2018.

 

And just to up the ante; last week, a group of the bank’s prized super-rich clients from across Europe and Asia joined a Zoom call hosted by law firm Boies Schiller Flexner to discuss a class-action suit against Credit Suisse.

 

Clients had been persuaded by Credit Suisse to invest in its collection of supply chain finance funds, backed by the now collapsed Greensill Capital, that were marketed as ultra-safe with “limited credit risk given multiple layers of protection”.

 

Around 4,000 investors ploughed a total of $10 billion into the funds, but now look set to lose up to a quarter of their stakes after Credit Suisse suspended the funds in March. And shortly after, Credit Suisse was hit with its biggest quarterly trading loss in more than a decade – $4.7 billion – linked to the collapse of family office Archegos Capital.

 

So Andreas Gottschling’s inertia? Ethos has around 5% of the stock, Harris Associates, 5.2%., maybe Gottschilling already knows the results of the voting and that he will not be voted out?