Credit Suisse On UK Watchlist For Stricter Control

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) of the United Kingdom has placed Credit Suisse on a watchlist of institutions in need of stricter supervision, the Financial Times reported, citing a letter sent in May, Reuters reported.

Photo Insert: Credit Suisse is also being questioned regarding the adequate reporting violations of conduct rules for a number of years.

According to the report, the regulator informed the Swiss bank last month that the action was taken due to concerns that the bank had not made sufficient improvements to its culture, governance, and risk controls.

The bank's inclusion on the watchlist, which consists of 20 or so institutions at any given time out of the approximately 60,000 the FCA monitors, suggests the regulator has serious concerns.

Credit Suisse was fined $475 million by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the FCA last year to settle bribery and fraud charges related to a $2 billion Mozambican corruption scandal.

According to the newspaper, the FCA has also asked Credit Suisse's senior executives to provide evidence of steps the bank would take to prevent instances of misconduct and improve accountability.

In the May letter, the FCA requested that the lender conduct reviews of the effectiveness of its international board, risk, and audit committees in the second half of the year. According to the report, the FCA made these review requests after consulting with the Swiss regulator Finma.

The regulator also expressed concerns in the letter about whether the bank adequately reported violations of conduct rules for a number of years, according to the FT report.

Credit Suisse lost 1.6 billion Swiss francs ($1.62 billion) last year as a result of the collapse of investment fund Archegos and $10 billion in SCFFs linked to insolvent British financier Greensill.

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