Pay hike for Credit Suisse’s boss
EMBATTLED Credit Suisse boss Brady Dougan received a 26 per cent pay hike this year, the bank’s annual report revealed yesterday, despite ongoing legal woes in the US.
The Swiss bank is facing claims in the US that it helped clients avoid taxes.
As a result Credit Suisse has set aside SFr895m (£605m) to cover the legal bills from the tax investigation – SFr425m more than the bank had previously expected to pay.
The provision is three times the SFr295m the bank initially set aside back in 2011 when the US authorities first made the investigation public.
At the same time Dougan’s total compensation jumped 26 per cent to SFr9.79m for the year.
The chief executive’s salary held steady at SFr2.5m, while his short term cash bonus increased from SFr500,000 to SFr690,000.
His share awards rose from SFr2.5m to SFr2.77m, while his long term incentive awards jumped from SFr2m to SFr3.6m
Dougan’s dividend payments also increased.
He has been chief executive since 2007 and a member of the board since 2003.
The US tax worries come on top of continued investigations into alleged interest rate and foreign exchange benchmark manipulation.
Those include civil action by investors who claim to have lost out as a result, as well as action by the authorities in Switzerland, the US and the UK.
Dougan addressed the conduct crisis cautiously in his letter to shareholders.
“Credit Suisse has seen no evidence to suggest that it is likely to have any material exposure in connection with the Libor matter,” he wrote.
“Furthermore, we are fully cooperating with industry investigations into trading activities and the setting of benchmark rates in foreign exchange markets, which are ongoing and it is too soon to predict the final outcome.”
Despite the extra legal costs, Credit Suisse’s shares ended the day up 0.79 per cent at SFr29.25, as the provisions were not as large as investors had previously feared.