Credit Suisse Vice-Chair Schwan undecided whether to stay on board -paper

TX AG

20/01/2022 06:42

ZURICH, Jan 20 (Reuters) - Credit Suisse  CSGN.S  Vice-Chair
Severin Schwan is undecided whether he will stand for
re-election at the bank's shareholder meeting in April, he told
Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeiger. 
    "I have not yet decided whether or not I will stand again at
the next Annual General Meeting," Schwan, also chief executive
of drugmaker Roche  ROG.S , was quoted as telling the paper in
an article published on Thursday.
    "In any case, the task now is to stabilise the bank, and I
am happy to support the new chairman in this," he added.
    Switzerland's second-largest lender on Monday announced the
abrupt departure of Antonio Horta-Osorio as chairman following
an internal probe into his personal conduct, including flouting
coronavirus quarantine rules in both Britain and Switzerland.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2TW0J0
    It was the bank's second change of chairman within nine
months.
    New Chairman Axel Lehmann and other managers will now
continue attempts to reform Switzerland's second-biggest bank,
still dealing with the fallout from a slew of earlier failings,
ranging from spying on executives to investment losses running
into billions of dollars.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2TX1CC
    Vice-Chair Schwan said that while his jobs at Credit Suisse
and Roche were compatible "in principle", he had experienced an
intense period lately on the Credit Suisse board.
    "In eight years on the Credit Suisse Board of Directors, I
had two phases in particular that were very intense, once around
the departure of Tidjane Thiam and now with the resignation of
António Horta-Osório," Schwan said, referring to the abrupt
departure following a spying scandal of former CEO Thiam in
2020.
    Schwan said he remained focused on leading Roche, the
world's second-largest pharmaceutical firm by market
capitalisation.
    "It was and is perfectly clear that I will not compromise on
Roche's leadership," he said.
    Having joined the bank's board in 2014, Schwan is now the
third-longest standing director there.

 (Reporting by Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi; Editing by Kenneth
Maxwell)
 ((brenna.neghaiwi@thomsonreuters.com; +41 58 306 77 35;))