Credit Suisse execs out as bank takes $4.7 billion hit from hedge fund collapse

The collapse last month of US hedge fund Archegos Capital cost Credit Suisse nearly $4.7 billion and two of the bank’s top executives their jobs.

The Swiss bank said Tuesday that it was likely to report a pretax loss of 900 million Swiss francs ($959 million) for the first quarter of this year after taking a charge of 4.4 billion Swiss francs ($4.7 billion) in respect of the failure of Archegos.

Credit Suisse also said that its top investment banker Brian Chin and chief risk officer Lara Warner would both be leaving the bank. Thomas Gottstein, who became CEO last year, will remain in his job.

Archegos imploded in March after it used borrowed money to build massive positions in stocks including media companies ViacomCBS and Discovery. Credit Suisse and Japan’s Nomura were among the major banks exposed to losses.

Archegos is the second major stumble for Credit Suisse in recent weeks. Earlier in March, it froze $10 billion in investment funds connected to failed UK financial startup Greensill Capital.

— This is a developing story and will be updated