MADRID, 28 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) -
The Swiss Financial Markets Supervisory Authority (Finma) has determined that Credit Suisse FINMA "seriously breached" its supervisory obligations with regard to risk management and appropriate organizational structures in the context of its relationship with Greensill Capital.
The British firm Greensill Capital, whose aggregate assets totaled some 10,000 million dollars (9,457 million euros), declared bankruptcy in 2021 due to the impossibility of meeting its debts.
Following a two-year investigation, the independent Swiss markets regulator has concluded that Credit Suisse seriously breached its supervisory duty to properly identify, limit and monitor risks in the context of the business relationship with Lex Greensill during a period of several years.
Finma also found serious deficiencies in the bank's organizational structures during the period under investigation, adding that it did not sufficiently fulfill its supervisory duties as asset manager.
In its conclusions, the Swiss regulator points out that, in general, Credit Suisse's asset management firm had little knowledge and control over the specific claims and points out that it was not Credit Suisse as the asset manager of the funds that selected and reviewed them. , but Greensill himself, in addition to also leaving the organization of the insurance cover in his own name in the hands of the latter.
In this way, Finma has ordered the banking group to prospectively evaluate its significant business relationships according to risks, so that, from now on, the most important business relationships (approximately 500) will be reviewed periodically and holistically in terms of counterparty risks. at the executive board level.
In addition, the areas of responsibility of the approximately 600 top managers of the bank must be recorded in the future in a responsibility document and if they do not organize and manage their business area in such a way as to prevent misconduct as much as possible, they must be sanctioned by the bank, for example through a reduction in their variable remuneration.
For this, the Swiss regulator will appoint an audit manager who will be in charge of reviewing compliance with these supervision measures by the entity.
Likewise, Finma has also opened four enforcement proceedings against former Credit Suisse executives, although it has not revealed the identities.
For its part, Credit Suisse has welcomed the announcement of the conclusion of Finma's proceedings in relation to this case, noting that over the course of the last two years it has implemented a series of extensive organizational measures.
In this sense, the entity has indicated that all the requirements identified by Finma are being addressed through the organizational measures already in place, underlining that the regulator has not ordered any confiscation of profits in relation to the procedure and it is not expected that the implementation of the additional measures will generate significant costs for Credit Suisse.
"Since March 2021, Credit Suisse has taken steps to directly address many of the issues subsequently highlighted by Finma," said Ulrich Körner, CEO of Credit Suisse Group, adding that the Swiss regulator has shown its support for the measures taken by the entity to strengthen governance and control processes.
