Credit Suisse creates new asset management risk role

2:02 am Friday, July 30th, 2021

By Oliver Hirt and Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi

ZURICH (Reuters) – Credit Suisse, recently hit by the Archegos and Greensill scandals, has created a new role of chief risk officer for asset management that will be filled by Wolfram Peters, former chief risk officer at Allianz Global Investors, executives of the Swiss bank said in an internal memo seen by Reuters.

Switzerland’s second-biggest bank has been overhauling risk and compliance since the two separate scandals hit its asset management and investment banking businesses in March, capping off a tumultuous two years for the lender.

The bank in April began overhauling its asset management setup and brought in former UBS executive Ulrich Koerner to lead the newly separated division, as it scrambles to return some $10 billion of client investments linked to insolvent supply chain finance firm Greensill Capital.

It has recovered some 66% of the funds’ value, the bank said on Thursday, when it reported a nearly 80% slide in second-quarter net profit on the back of residual aftershocks related to the separate default of Archegos Capital Management.

Peters, who left Allianz in April according to LinkedIn, will begin his new role at Credit Suisse on Sept. 1. He previously spent 16 years in various risk roles at Allianz Global Investors, the asset management arm of German insurer Allianz.

“Wolfram brings with him a proven track record of developing high-performing teams and designing and implementing a risk architecture that supported a transforming organization in the implementation of a rapidly developing business strategy,” Koerner and interim group risk chief Joachim Oechslin told employees in a joint memo.

The contents of the memo were confirmed by a spokesperson for the bank.

Credit Suisse faces enforcement proceedings by the Swiss financial market supervisor over both the Greensill and Archegos matters, and launched internal investigations into the matters as well.

In a damning assessment of what went wrong, an independent review unveiled on Thursday repeatedly criticized the bank’s risk management practices related to Archegos.

It has yet to unveil findings from its inquiry into Greensill.

(Reporting by Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi and Oliver Hirt; Editing by Susan Fenton)