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Axel Lehmann probe has closed.

Credit Suisse
 The Swiss reg­u­lator has closed its probe into remarks by Credit Suisse chair Axel Lehmann about cus­tomer out­flows, say­ing there are no suf­fi­cient grounds for super­vis­ory pro­ceed­ings.

Finma, the Swiss financial market supervisory authority,  said yes­ter­day it had con­cluded a probe it began last month into pos­sible legal viol­a­tions over remarks made by Lehmann in Decem­ber dur­ing the final days of the bank’s cap­ital raise.

«After com­plet­ing its invest­ig­a­tions, it sees no suf­fi­cient grounds to open super­vis­ory pro­ceed­ings,» the reg­u­lator said. But when Credit Suisse repor­ted its res­ults for the fourth quarter last month, the bank revealed that out­flows had con­tin­ued throughout Decem­ber and into Janu­ary, though at a far slower pace.

This promp­ted Finma to look into the accur­acy of Lehmann’s com­ments. Credit Suisse senior man­agers had also looked into the mat­ter, said people famil­iar with the situ­ation.

Cus­tom­ers with­drew SFr111bn from the group in the final three months of 2022, with two-thirds of the out­flows com­ing in Octo­ber when rumours hit the bank on social media about its fin­an­cial health.

The bank’s shares hit an all-time low of SFr2.70 the day before Lehmann’s first inter­view with the FT on Decem­ber 1.

At least two US law firms said they were pre­par­ing class actions against Credit Suisse fol­low­ing Finma’s probe.

Since Decem­ber, shares in Credit Suisse had fallen fur­ther, hit­ting SFr2.63 yes­ter­day, the day after the bank was forced to delay pub­lic­a­tion of its annual report when the SEC made a call over cash flow state­ments dat­ing back to 2019.

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Comments

  1. Fred11 March 2023 at 11:34

    I was expecting them to do something about this and fine Lehmann or punish him in some way for what he said. It is clear he didn't present the whole truth.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Chandler11 March 2023 at 12:36

      Finma probably knew he was lying but if they didn't find enough proof then they can't do much about it. It's disappointing but it is what it is.

      Delete

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