It’s going to be rock solid for Credit Suisse. The core business of the tradition-conscious Swiss bank has been languishing for some time. It has long been considered a takeover candidate. Above all, reports of losses and scandals such as those surrounding the Greensill funds have recently shaped the picture. The bank allegedly sold its customers secure and expensively insured loans – until the bubble burst. Customers were left with billions in damage.
Credit Suisse: Documents were leaked anonymously
And now this: for years, the bank is said to have knowingly accepted criminals, including autocrats, drug dealers, murderers and suspected war criminals, as customers. This is reported by an international team of journalists who evaluated anonymous data from the bank. The report covers accounts from 37,000 customers around the world, most of them from developing countries. The bank, so the accusation, knew that it was doing business with criminals. The subtext: They didn’t care. Money beats morals. Credit Suisse “resolutely” rejected the allegations.
This is not surprising at first. Denying everything, washing your hands in innocence is a well-known, tried and tested means of crisis communication. It is rarely successful. It would be in the bank’s own interest to investigate the allegations and to conduct clarifications. Once again, the incidents highlight Swiss banking secrecy, which is considered one of the toughest in the world. And that too often has had to be used as a fig leaf to cover up dubious deals.
It is significant that not a single Swiss medium was involved in the research. Journalists face imprisonment here if they pass on or publish secret information about bank accounts. Free expression? Sometimes it has narrow limits. In the land of the Confederates, things are amiss.