Credit Suisse names new finance chief ahead of shareholders meeting

Credit Suisse swaps CFO ahead of shareholders day

GENEVA — Credit Suisse Group said Friday it would replace its chief financial officer as shareholders gathered in Zurich for what is expected to be a tense general meeting replete with questions about the Swiss bank’s massive bonuses to top executives.

Investment bank chief David Mathers will replace current Chief Financial Officer Renato Fassbind on Oct. 1, the bank said.

Fassbind, who has been in the post for six years, will remain an adviser to the bank.

Activist shareholders are planning to vent their ire Friday about the 6.9 billion Swiss francs ($6.4 billion) in bonuses that Credit Suisse paid managers last year. The board of rival bank UBS AG suffered an embarrassing defeat two weeks ago when shareholders refused to absolve former top executives of responsibility for huge losses, and many voted against executive bonuses.

Much of the anger is directed at the 18 million francs bonus received last year by Chief Executive Brady Dougan, on top of 71 million francs he received as part of a long-term bonus program started in 2004.

Some shareholder groups want top executives to give 10 percent of their bonuses to investors who lost hundreds of millions of dollars after being advised to buy products in failed U.S. bank Lehman Brothers.

Rene Zeyer, a shareholder representing investors who lost money because of Lehman products, appealed directly to Dougan.

“You earn 10,275 francs every hour, about 250,000 francs every single day of the year,” Zeyer said according to a speech published ahead of the meeting. “For that we can expect a bit of decency from you.”

Credit Suisse shares were up 1.1 percent at 51.40 francs ($47.60) on the Zurich exchange.

The bank reported a first-quarter net profit of 2.06 billion Swiss francs last week, meeting analyst predictions but disappointing those investors who had hoped to see stronger earnings after Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs posted better-than-expected results.