Credit Suisse – lurching from one crisis to the next

Credit Suisse proudly proclaims itself as the ‘World’s Best Bank Winner 2020’ as yet another top brass, chairman Antonio Horta-Osorio, is tossed overboard and that is only the latest in a long line of scandals. The recent history of the bank on wiki reads like a Gordon Gekko script, running back through Greensill, Malaysian IMDB,  Mozambique secret loans, Archegos, forex manipulation, a US Foreign Corrupt Practices fine for Chinese involvement; and that is in the last decade. Before that the Swiss bank was at the centre of multiple international investigations for tax avoidance to which it pled guilty and paid US$2.6 billion in fines from 2008 to 2012.

  The previous CEO Tidjane Thiam survived five years before being ousted after allegations of spying on a staff member though he claims it wasn’t done with his knowledge. Antonio Horta-Osorio, brought in to clean up the stable, and the first ever non-Swiss chairman, has only made it through eight months before being shown the door for covid breaches and overuse of the company’s private jet. He did appear to have acted badly though there are murmurs of internal resistance to his attempts at pushing through changes.

  Credit Suisse was founded 5 July 1856 in Zurich with a Cancer Sun and Venus square Mars opposition North Node and widely Jupiter; and both Pluto and Uranus are in Taurus (not conjunct). Both its Taurus planets have been triggered in the recent past with tr Pluto trine the Uranus; tr Uranus conjunct the Pluto over Thiam’s exit; Solar Arc Pluto in a blocked conjunction to the Mars in 2020 and an apple-cart upsetting Solar Arc Uranus opposition the Pluto in 2021. So it is in a turbulent and game-changing few years which will run on through its Uranus Return in 2023 and the Solar Arc Pluto opposing its Aries North Node in 2024.

 Antonio Horta-Osorio was born 28 January 1964, four days after Novak Djovic’s excitable mother, and two weeks before Sarah Palin. He has a determined and stubborn Sun Mars in Aquarius as well as Saturn in Aquarius and all square onto Neptune. In Palin’s case it is a tighter square but is still not an indication of much common sense. He also has Mercury in Capricorn in an over-confident square to Jupiter in Aries. Most significantly he has a Yod of Jupiter sextile Mars inconjunct Pluto, which can throw up difficulties in handling power.

 Tidjane Thiam, 29 July 1962, is a Sun and North Node in Leo opposition Saturn square Neptune; with a powerhouse Jupiter opposition Pluto square Mars in Gemini.

  Neither of them lack confidence but what is intriguing is the emphasised Neptune in both charts – not quite what you’d expect in a global banker.

  They won’t be short of cash with vast salaries when in situ and pay offs.  

The entire bank culture is well beyond the pale – and regrettably Pluto in Capricorn doesn’t seem to have done much to sweep out the Augean stables.