Swiss Regulator Begins Enforcement Proceedings Against Credit Suisse Over Spying Activities

(RTTNews) - The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority FINMA has opened enforcement proceedings against Credit Suisse in the 2019 spying activities at the Swiss bank.

FINMA opened the proceedings after an auditor appointed by the Swiss watchdog last December completed its investigation of Credit Suisse. which has acknowledged observation activities against two former executives of the Swiss bank.

FINMA said it will pursue indications of violations of supervisory law in the context of the bank's observation and security activities and in particular the question of how those activities were documented and controlled.

In February 2020, Tidjane Thiam resigned as Chief Executive officer of Credit Suisse following spying scandal at the bank.

In December 2019, Credit Suisse had confirmed that a second top employee was placed under surveillance earlier last year.

Peter Goerke, who was a member of the Executive Board at the time, was placed under observation by a third-party firm on behalf of the bank for a period of several days in February 2019.

An investigation by the bank-enlisted Swiss law firm then concluded that Pierre-Olivier Bouée, a former member of the Executive Board, initiated spying on Peter Goerke. As was the case with former wealth management head Iqbal Khan also, the observation was carried out via an intermediary. Khan had subsequently moved on to UBS.

The Swiss law firm's investigation did not find any indication that Tidjane Thiam, other members of the Executive Board, or members of the Board of Directors had any knowledge of the observation of Peter Goerke until media reported on it.

The bank had terminated the employment agreement with Pierre-Olivier Bouée.