Credit Suisse's chair apologised this week for taking the bank to the brink of bankruptcy as he faced shareholder fury over the abrupt demise of a national icon.
The hastily arranged takeover by Zurich-based UBS, for which Switzerland invoked emergency legislation, bypassed Credit Suisse shareholders, who would otherwise have had a say, and all but wiped them out.
Its final meeting of shareholders on Tuesday marked an ignominious end to the 167-year-old bank.
Protesters gathered outside the concert venue where the meeting took place, with some erecting a capsized boat to depict the bank's demise.
Inside, chair Axel Lehmann issued an apology to the nearly 2,000 shareholders in attendance, saying he had run out of time to turn the bank around.
“I am truly sorry,” said Lehmann. “I apologise that we were no longer able to stem the loss of trust.”
One after another, shareholders took to the stage to voice their anger at the arranged marriage between the two banks and at the raw deal for investors.
Shareholder advisory firm Ethos decried the “greed and incompetence of its managers”, as well as pay that reached “unimaginable heights”.
“Shareholders have lost considerable amounts of money and thousands of jobs are on the line,” it said.
The meeting was the first time Lehmann and CEO Ulrich Koerner publicly addressed shareholders since the takeover.
Credit Suisse had been attempting to put the past behind it and restructure, before a shock triggered by the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank in the US sent it into a spiral.
After a run on deposits, the Swiss government turned to UBS, which agreed to buy Credit Suisse for $3.3 billion (about R59bn), a fraction of its earlier market value.
Reuters
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