Credit Suisse combines risk and compliance, adds sustainable investing unit

The Zurich-based bank and wealth management firm also shifted its chief compliance officer to head up a new division on sustainable investing. Credit Suisse announced Thursday it would create a new global investment bank within the firm.

The changes are meant to “improve effectiveness, drive efficiencies and capture future growth opportunities,” the bank said in a press release.

Credit Suisse said combining the separate group chief risk officer and group chief compliance officer into one position—the group chief risk and compliance officer (CRCO)—would create a “less complex operating model” that would “build on existing progress in the 2nd line of defense organizations to further enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of our control environment amid stricter regulatory frameworks,” as well as “reduce fragmentation, eliminate duplication, improve coordination and allow for faster decision making.”

The firm’s new CRCO is Lara Warner, who had previously been group chief risk officer.

The company also reinforced its commitment to sustainable investing by creating an executive-level position under its new Sustainability, Research & Investment Solutions (SRI) function. Lydie Hudson, the firm’s former group chief compliance officer, will assume the role.

Warner and Hudson will each remain on the company’s executive board in their new roles.

The new SRI division’s goal will be to provide “at least” CHF 300 billion (U.S. $329.7 billion) of sustainable financing over the next 10 years by focusing on investments that “enhance” biodiversity while reducing investment in corporate oil & gas companies and restricting investments in companies that operate in the fields of “thermal coal extraction, coal power, and the Arctic region.”

The global investment bank is a combination of Credit Suisse’s Global Markets, Investment Banking & Capital Markets and APAC Markets that forms “a globally integrated Investment Bank to achieve critical scale,” the company said.

Credit Suisse had a number of run-ins with U.S. and European regulators in 2018. The firm entered into a $30 million settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission to settle Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) violations by a Hong Kong subsidiary; a $47 million penalty to the Department of Justice to settle FCPA violations regarding the firm’s hiring practices in Asia; and agreed to pay $10 million to the SEC and New York Division of Financial Services to settle allegations that its now-closed Retail Execution Services business made material misrepresentations and omissions as it handled certain customer orders.

The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) also concluded two enforcement procedures against Credit Suisse in 2018.