Credit Suisse cut 'excellent ethical banker,' retained less popular guy
Dixit Joshi's brief spell at Credit Suisse is over. No sooner had he declared his humble delight at returning to Credit Suisse as CFO on LinkedIn, than Credit Suisse was plunged into a crisis not of Joshi's making which ultimately culminated in today's official takeover by UBS and Joshi's premature exit.
While Joshi, who has a long history in banking (Credit Suisse, Barclays, Deutsche, back to Credit Suisse) might be just about ready to retire anyhow, his exit will be missed by some at the Swiss bank. Joshi is widely respected in the industry for his long experience, attention to detail and ethical approach. Those lamenting his exit are likely to include the likes of Tom Nyiro, the new head of Credit Suisse's toxic asset/capital release unit, who worked closely with Joshi when Joshi was DB's former treasurer. Nyiro may have joined CS in the expectation that he'd be working with Joshi again; sadly not.
While Joshi is out, UBS is retaining a less popular senior Credit Suisse banker. As we were first to report in April, Yves-Alain Sommerhalder made an unexpected return to the Swiss bank after leaving it at the start of this year with the avowed intention of relaxing. Sommerhalder, who is close to Iqbal Khan, head of UBS’s wealth management business, will be head of wealth management at Credit Suisse, according to a memo sent by Khan today. He will also work on the integration of Credit Suisse and UBS's wealth management businesses. However, it's not entirely clear what will happen to him when that integration is complete. Sommerhalder, who is thought to be independently wealthy, is less popular at Credit Suisse after working on businesses like Credit Suisse Solution Partners, which no longer exist, and allegedly keeping his distance from bankers on the floor according to his detractors.
Today's other big CS exit is David Miller, the ultimate Credit Suisse survivor who joined in 1997, survived big losses in the financial crisis and yet somehow became head of the whole Credit Suisse investment banking and capital markets business in 2019 despite being a leveraged finance guy. Famous for once saying, “I go wherever I can find a fee,” Miller had been on a precarious footing ever since Michael Klein concocted his plan for CS First Boston and allegedly left Miller out of the loop. With Miller gone, his long-serving credit lieutenants - Jason Safriet, Brian Buchichio, Joseph Friedman, Brian Harris, Micky McPartland and Wayne Powless, may be expected to leave soon too.
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