Credit Suisse CEO on Brexit chaos: 'Some of our people worked 36 hours straight'

Thomson Reuters

GENEVA (Reuters) - Credit Suisse Chief Executive Tidjane Thiam congratulated all the bank's trading teams for the way they handled the aftermath of the Brexit referendum, he said in a newspaper interview published on Sunday.

"I was on the trading floor in London the day after the Brexit referendum. Some of our people worked 36 hours straight and at one point we had 27 times the normal daily trading volume," he told the NZZ am Sonntag newspaper.

"Our systems worked without a hitch. This was a real test of the strength of our organization."

Thiam said the chaos following the Brexit vote had also vindicated his decision to sell off illiquid positions and reduce the bank's risk profile.

"The day after Brexit we were all glad we didn't hold these positions any longer," he said.

Credit Suisse shares fell below 10 francs last week as the impact of Brexit compounded the pain of a major restructuring of the bank and concerns about its capital position.

Thiam, who has been at the helm of the Swiss bank for a year, said in the interview the bank had no problem with capital and would stick to its capital raising plans and profit forecasts.

(Reporting by Tom Miles. Editing by Jane Merriman)

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