Elisa Martinuzzi, Columnist

Credit Suisse's Horrible Year Is Just Starting

The Swiss bank's capacious appetite for risk is at the heart of its Bill Hwang and Lex Greensill calamities.

March 30, 2021 at 11:45 AM UTC

Elisa Martinuzzi is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering finance. She is a former managing editor for European finance at Bloomberg News.

An impossible job for Thomas Gottstein? — An impossible job for Thomas Gottstein?
Photographer: FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP

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Credit Suisse Group AG’s recent history has been marked by a spying scandal, executive brawls and huge fines. But even by its low standards, 2021 is shaping up to be a horrible year. Within the space of a few weeks the Swiss bank has been caught on the wrong side of two spectacular financial-market implosions. An unfortunate coincidence? Unlikely. The firm’s ethos and business model are at the heart of the mishaps.

This is a systemically important lender that’s known for its capacious appetite for risk. Hence the Swiss bank forged deep ties to Lex Greensill’s murky invoice-financing business and is now struggling to return $10 billion of supply-chain funds to investors after Greensill Capital imploded this month.