Iris Bohnet, a leading academic, and Jean-Daniel Gerber, a former senior Swiss government policymaker, have been proposed for election to Credit Suisse’s board of directors for three years at the Zurich-listed bank’s annual general meeting on 27 April.

Meanwhile, Credit Suisse, the country's second biggest bank, also proposes to increase authorised capital to cover the issuance and delivery of a maximum of 50 million new registered shares to shareholders under the proposed scrip dividend, it said in a statement today. It also further proposes to create conversion capital with a maximum of 200 million shares to be able to issue further loss-absorbing capital instruments under the Swiss “too big to fail” legislation.

Bohnet, a Swiss citizen, is academic dean and Professor of Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. Gerber, a Swiss citizen, was director of the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) between 2004 and 2011.

Proposed for re-election are the following five board members::

Walter Kielholz (member of the board since 1999; member of the chairman’s and governance committee; member of the compensation committee) for a term of two years;

Andreas Koopmann (member of the board since 2009; member of the risk committee) for a term of three years;

Richard Thornburgh (member of the board since 2006; chairman of the risk committee; member of the chairman’s and governance committee; member of the audit committee) for a term of three years;

John Tiner (member of the board since 2009; chairman of the audit committee; member of the chairman’s and governance committee; member of the risk committee) for a term of three years;

Urs Rohner (member of the board since 2009; chairman of the board of directors since the 2011 AGM and chairman of the chairman’s and governance committee) for a term of three years.

Distribution

Credit Suisse proposes to distribute SFr0.75 per share out of reserves from capital contributions in the form of either a scrip dividend, a cash distribution or a combination of these elements. This allows Credit Suisse to pay a distribution to its shareholders while retaining regulatory capital.

Credit Suisse shareholders will be entitled to elect to either receive new shares, subject to any legal restrictions applicable in their home jurisdiction, or to receive a cash distribution in the amount of SFr0.75 per registered share. Should no election be made, the distribution will be paid out entirely in cash. The distribution is scheduled for 23 May 2012.