Investment bankers, former General Electric chief executive Jeff Immelt once said, are “mainly just for friendship”.
Credit Suisse suffered multiple scandals, huge losses, and had to ask shareholders for another 4 billion Swiss francs last year.The details haven’t been finalised, but the investment banking division of the Zurich-based Credit Suisse is going to become a separate company,The new name and owners will represent a change in culture – and possibly a return to an older, more successful one. A Swiss bank will become a New York one.
All had gone to New York in the 1980s, and experienced the leveraged buyout boom sweeping through corporate America. Once back home, they rejected bureaucracy and rewarded initiative. No psychological tests were conducted on new hires. Individual bankers weren’t subservient to head office, which can happen in large banks wary about allowing employees to become too prominent.“At some organisations the brand is bigger than the people,” one former employee said. “At CSFB the people were better.
After the market collapsed, regulators began investigating Quattrone over allegations he favoured specific clients. When he was told the firm was under investigation, he forwarded an email to his entire staff with the subject line: “Re: Time to clean up those files”. Quattrone was convicted of obstruction of justice, a verdict overturned on appeal.
When the old name will return isn’t entirely clear. The bank will reveal a timeline for its changes in coming months, according to a local source. “There is a proud legacy among these guys and they’re happy the name is coming back,” he says. “They were very good times.”