Credit Suisse swan song

THE Credit Suisse boss ousted after a spying scandal has signed off with the bank’s biggest profits haul in almost a decade.

In his last day in the job, Tidjane Thiam, 57, revealed profits soared 69pc to £2.7bn last year – the most it had generated since 2010.

Thiam said: ‘I would not use the word vindication, that’s not how I look at the world. I’m pleased for colleagues and staff.’

The bumper profit follows a major restructuring of the Swiss banking giant by Thiam, who took the helm in 2015. The overhaul aimed to refocus the bank on wealth management and its richest clients.

But it has been painful in the short term, with the bank only returning to profit in 2018 after three years of losses.

The latest upturn in fortunes at Switzerland’s second biggest bank may be bittersweet for Thiam. Last week he was forced to quit after being unanimously voted out by the board, and losing a power- struggle with the bank’s chairman Urs Rohner.

This has escalated since it emerged in September that former wealth management boss Iqbal Khan and his wife were followed in Zurich by private detectives hired by the bank as he prepared to move to rival UBS.

The bank insisted it was a one off but it later emerged that former human resources boss Peter Goerke had also been placed under surveillance.

Two executives, including Thiam’s right-hand man PierreOlivier Bouee, were sacked over the scandal.

But Thiam has insisted he did not know anything about the use of private detectives.