Credit Suisse Names James Walker COO As Pierre-Olivier Bouee Resigns

(RTTNews) - Swiss banking major Credit Suisse Group AG (CS) announced Tuesday that it has appointed James Walker as Chief Operating Officer and member of the Executive Board with immediate effect.

Walker succeeds Pierre-Olivier Bouée, who stepped down from the Executive Board assuming responsibility regarding the mandate for the observation of Iqbal Khan, former CEO of International Wealth Management. The bank has also accepted the resignation with immediate effect of the Head of Global Security Services.

In its statement, the bank noted that on August 29, when UBS announced the employment of Khan, Credit Suisse's COO ordered the Head of Global Security Services to initiate his observation.

During the Homburger investigation, the COO said that he alone decided to initiate the observation in order to protect the interests of the bank, and that he did not discuss it with Credit Suisse's Chief Executive Officer.

The Homburger investigation did not identify any indication that the CEO had approved the observation of Khan nor that he was aware of it prior to September 18, 2019, after the observation had been aborted.

The bank also noted that the investigation or the observation of Khan did not identify any evidence that he had attempted to poach employees or clients away from Credit Suisse.

The Board of Directors now considers that the mandate for the observation of Khan was wrong and disproportionate and has resulted in severe reputational damage to the bank.

The new COO Walker currently holds several senior roles in the bank's finance organization, including Chief Financial Officer of key US subsidiaries and Head of Product Control.