- Paul Galietto, head of equities sales and trading at Credit Suisse, is stepping down, Insider has learned.
- Credit Suisse is facing a loss totalling in the billions tied to the Archegos Capital Management blowup.
- Investment banking chief Brian Chin and Chief Risk Officer Lara Warner are also exiting, according to media reports.
- See more stories on Insider’s business page.
The head of equities sales and trading at Credit Suisse is stepping down, according to a person with knowledge of the move, as the bank grapples with what could be a loss totalling in the billions tied to the blowup of Archegos Capital Management.
Equities chief Paul Galietto joined Credit Suisse in 2017 and previously worked as the global head of prime services and head of Americas equities. Galietto joined from Swiss banking rival UBS, where he served as head of equities.
Anthony Abenante, global head of execution services, will replace Galietto as interim head of equities sales and trading while the firm searches for Galietto’s permanent replacement, a person familiar with the matter said. Abenante will also continue to serve in his current role. Yves-Alain Sommerhalder, who has worked as co-head of global trading solutions with Galietto, will now serve as sole head of GTS.
Investment banking chief Brian Chin is also leaving the bank, Bloomberg News reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter. And Chief Risk Officer Lara Warner is set to depart, the Financial Times reported later on Monday, citing people with knowledge of the move.
Credit Suisse told investors on March 29 that it expected to sustain losses due to its exposure to a “significant US-based hedge fund” unable to meet margin calls by Credit Suisse and other banks. Those losses could be “highly significant and material to our first quarter results,” the firm said, and some analysts said the losses tied to Archegos could be between $3 billion and $4 billion.
Archegos, a family office founded by hedge-fund billionaire Bill Hwang, saw $8 billion in assets vaporize when its huge, concentrated bets placed via swaps positions suddenly moved against it. That has left banks scrambling to unwind their side of the trades, with Credit Suisse and Nomura bearing the brunt of the losses while other firms including Goldman Sachs have escaped largely unscathed.
Credit Suisse is still unwinding its positions in stocks linked to Archegos, like ViacomCBS and Discovery, Reuters reported on Monday, citing a source familiar with the trades. The bank declined to comment to Reuters.
The fiasco came just weeks after the bank told investors that it had to freeze $10 billion of supply-chain finance funds linked to Greensill Capital over valuation concerns. Managing directors probed Chin and Credit Suisse Chief Executive Thomas Gottstein on a company call last Monday about the firm’s relationship with Archegos, Insider previously reported, with at least one person also raising the Greensill ordeal.
Investors and ratings agencies have noted the bank’s troubles. S&P Global Ratings, Fitch Ratings, and Moody’s in the last week have all downgraded their outlooks on Credit Suisse to negative over risk management-related concerns.
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