Credit score Suisse instructed CNBC Wednesday that U.S. authorities will “absolutely not” discover any proof of wrongdoing because it faces a probe on its compliance with sanctions on Russian oligarchs.
The Swiss financial institution is under investigation by the Home Oversight Committee over allegations that it requested buyers to “destroy and permanently erase” paperwork related to a portfolio of loans backed by yachts and personal jets probably owned by sanctioned Russian oligarchs.
Credit score Suisse allegedly despatched the request to buyers following a report first surfaced by the Monetary Occasions that it had offloaded the dangers relating to $2 billion of loans to a bunch of hedge funds.
CEO Thomas Gottstein mentioned Wednesday that the letter acquired by buyers had “nothing to do” with sanctions or loans belonging to members of President Vladimir Putin’s internal circle.
“[It] has nothing to do with destroying materials related to sanctions,” Gottstein instructed CNBC’s Geoff Cutmore.
“This was a one-off transaction, which was very much a continuation of three other securitized transactions we did before,” he continued.
“It was part of our dealing with private placement investors, institutional investors, and there were absolutely no materials in there that were relevant from a sanctions perspective.”
Requested whether or not the financial institution had any case to reply, Gottstein mentioned “absolutely not.”
In accordance to the FT, the request letters have been despatched throughout every week through which the U.S., U.Ok. and EU launched a recent wave of sanctions in opposition to Russia over its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.
Russian enterprise
Gottstein additionally defended the financial institution’s place on Russian enterprise, saying that like different main Wall Avenue and European banks it was winding down its operations there within the wake of the struggle.
“As everybody else, we are winding down our Russia business,” he mentioned, reiterating an announcement made final month.
Going ahead, Gottstein mentioned the financial institution would not be taking up “any new business, any new clients” from Russia, whereas additionally persevering with to wind down its publicity to present Russian purchasers.
“Our total exposure to Russian clients — that includes Russian clients all over the world, not only the Russian clients in Russia — and we have been reducing this by 56% in terms of our credit exposure,” he mentioned.
The remarks observe the discharge of Credit score Suisse’s first quarter 2022 financial results Wednesday, in which it reported a net loss of 273 million Swiss francs ($283.5 million).
Russia-related losses accounted for 206 million Swiss francs of the losses, while the bank also took a hit of 155 million Swiss francs related to the Archegos scandal.
Gottstein has previously stated that roughly 4% of the belongings the financial institution manages in its core wealth administration enterprise belong to Russian purchasers.
“We have roughly 4% of our assets under management in wealth management with Russian clients, be they Russian-domiciled or Russian nationals who live in the West,” Gottstein mentioned, in accordance to Reuters. That determine has not modified considerably since, the financial institution mentioned in an replace Wednesday.
