The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority has concluded its investigation into Credit Suisse and has identified serious breaches of supervisory law. The Swiss regulator announced that it has imposed measures on the company, reprimanded two individuals and opened enforcement proceedings against three others.
FINMA opened an investigation in Credit Suisse’s observation activities in the beginning of 2020 and subsequently opened enforcement proceedings against the bank as a result of its findings.
The investigation has now concluded and exposed that from 2016 to 2019 Credit Suisse planned seven observations, including on members of the executive board. The bank also spied on former employees and third parties abroad, according to FINMA.
FINMA said:
The way in which the observation activities were planned and carried out revealed serious shortcomings in the bank’s corporate governance. Observations were not specifically prohibited in Credit Suisse’s policies, but neither were they regulated. Corresponding risk management processes and integration into the internal control system were lacking. In most cases, decisions to carry out observations were taken informally and without comprehensible reasons being given.
The statement continued:
Finally, the observations and their background were concealed. Contrary to the bank’s internal policies, for example, external means of communication (text messaging services) were used. Then, third-party providers were involved as intermediaries or very rudimentary invoices were issued and settled for costs incurred. In one case, an invoice was subsequently altered in order to conceal the costs of an observation.
