CREDIT SUISSE CHIEF THIAM STEPS DOWN

GENEVA: Credit Suisse CEO Tidjane Thiam is resigning after nearly five years on the job, acknowledging that a spying scandal caused “anxiety and hurt” and tarnished the reputation of the top-drawer Swiss bank. The bank said in a statement Friday that its board had accepted Thiam’s resignation a day earlier. It will take effect on February 14, after the presentation of Credit Suisse’s fourth-quarter results. He will be replaced by Thomas Gottstein, the CEO of the bank’s Swiss operations. Last month, Credit Suisse announced that a second former top executive was snooped on at the behest of its then-chief operating officer, who resigned earlier over another such case. “I had no knowledge of the observation of two former colleagues,” Thiam said in the statement. “I regret that this happened and it should never have taken place.” External investigations turned up an operation early last year ordered by Pierre-Olivier Bouee, then the bank’s COO, to snoop on two former executives.