People Moves
Credit Suisse Creates New Risk Role At Asset Management Arm

Credit Suisse has been forced to shake up its risk management systems in the wake of the Archegos and Greensill episodes. It has also worked to put its asset management arm on a separate footing.
Credit Suisse, hit by a number of problems in its prime brokerage and asset management businesses in recent months, continues to unveil new staff and changes to its senior line-up. The CRO role for asset management is a new position.
The lender, which last week reported second-quarter
results, has named former Allianz
Global Investors senior figure to the newly-created role of
chief risk officer for asset management. Wolfram Peters will take
up the role effective Sept. 1.
Peters, will report to Joachim Oechslin, interim chief risk
officer, with “dotted line” reporting to Ulrich Körner, chief
executive for asset management. He spent 16 years in various
senior risk management positions at Allianz Global Investors,
including the roles of global chief risk officer and membership
of the board of Allianz Global Investors GmbH. Prior to this, he
was CRO for Europe and Germany, respectively, and head of
portfolio risk for Germany. Before Allianz, Peters spent six
years as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company in
Germany.
He joins a firm going through a series of senior management
changes. In July, Credit Suisse named Markus Ruetimann as new
global chief operating officer of Credit Suisse Asset Management.
Ruetimann was formerly at rival UBS. It has also named a new chief
risk officer for the whole bank, David
Wildermuth.
The Zurich-listed bank split the asset management business into
its own division following the implosion of around $10 billion of
funds linked to UK supply-chain financier Greensill Capital.
There have also been other departures from the bank amid the
heavy losses sustained by exposure to failed New York hedge
fund/family office Archegos
Capital Management.
Tony Patti, who headed up the fiduciary risk management function
at the Swiss bank’s business and helped to build the asset
management group as a separate division, is continuing as head of
independent validation and review and global head of credit risk
review.
A few days prior to this, Credit Suisse said that David Kruck had
joined the asset management business as chief of staff, effective
August 1. Kruck joined from UBS, where most recently, he served
as the chief of staff to the president of asset management and
group executive board sponsor for sustainability and impact.
Prior to that, he worked in the wealth management division.
Elsewhere, Henning Wechsung, interim chief of staff, became
divisional head of strategy for asset management, reporting to
Markus Rütimann, chief operating officer of asset management.
Henning joined the asset management business in 2018 for the
Swiss/EMEA region.
As reported earlier this year, Credit Suisse has been forced to
shake up its risk management systems in the wake of the Archegos
and Greensill episodes, with a number of senior figures leaving.
In April, Credit Suisse booked
an expected net loss in the first three months of 2021 of
SFr252 million ($275.5 million).
(A number of other banks, such as Nomura, were also hit by the
implosion of Archegos. The situation has prompted some regulators
to claim the family offices sector needs to be more tightly
regulated, in turn leading to claims that such regulation
would be misplaced.)