| Website | http://www.credit-suisse.com |
| Headquarters |
Paradeplatz 8
8070 Zurich
Switzerland
|
| CEO/chair |
Ulrich Körner CEO |
| Supervisor | |
| Ownership |
listed on NYSE & SIX Swiss Exchange
Credit Suisse's shareholder structure can be accessed here. (information dated March 16 2023). |
Credit Suisse Group was founded in 1856 and is headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland. It serves companies, institutional clients and high-net-worth private clients worldwide, as well as retail clients in Switzerland. The Credit Suisse bank offers services in private banking, investment banking, and asset management.
On March 19th 2023, following intervention by regulators, the takeover of Credit Suisse by UBS was announced. Updates on the acquisition by UBS can be accessed here.
Credit Suisse's most important sustainability commitments can be found at the website sections listed below.
Credit Suisse is linked to a number of companies and projects that BankTrack considers controversial (so called Dodgy Deals), e.g. as a current or past financier or through an expression of interest. The profiles below provide more details on the nature of Credit Suisse's link to these deals.
Credit Suisse states that indications of potential or real human rights impacts can be brought to its attention using its Integrity Hotline (Switzerland: 0800 356 356 56), the Credit Suisse Whistleblower Process, client contact centers, online contact forms, or email.
Stakeholders may also raise complaints via the OECD National Contact Points (see OECD Watch guidance).
Credit Suisse is an Equator Principles signatory. While the Equator Principles have no official grievance mechanism, complaints relating to this bank's financing of Equator Principles projects can be filed through our own website www.equator-complaints.org.
This page evaluates Credit Suisse's responses to instances of alleged human rights violations linked to its finance, raised by civil society organisations. It is not intended to be exhaustive, but covers selected impacts raised by BankTrack and other civil society partners since 2016. For the full scoring methodology, see here. For more information about BankTrack's evaluation of bank responses to human rights impacts, see the 2021 report "Actions speak louder: assessing bank responses to human rights violations".
The 2023 Banking on Climate Chaos report showed that Credit Suisse provided US$ 104.62 Billion in financing to the fossil fuel industry between 2016 and 2022. Find further details on Credit Suisse fossil fuel portfolio and how it compares to other large banks globally on Fossil Banks No Thanks and in the Banking on Climate Chaos report.
Partner organisation Reclaim Finance tracks the coal, oil and gas policies of financial institutions, including banks, in their Coal Policy Tool (CPT) and the Oil and Gas Policy Tracker (OGPT). BankTrack works closely with Reclaim Finance and endorses their policy assessments. Find further details on their assessment of Credit Suisse’s fossil fuel policy below.
BankTrack assessed Credit Suisse in its 2022 Global Human Rights Benchmark, where it achieved 5 points out of 14 and was ranked as a follower. In addition, Credit Suisse scored 0.3 out of 3 on how it responds to alleged human rights violations linked to its finance, which were raised by civil society organisations. More information is detailed in the "Accountability" section of this profile.
Credit Suisse’s policies for forest-risk sectors (beef, soy, palm oil, pulp and paper, rubber and timber) have been assessed by the Forests & Finance coalition, achieving an overall score of 5.9 out of 10 and ranking it as a front runner. Credit Suisse achieved a score of 4.1 out of 10 specifically for its policies related to the beef sector and 7 out of 10 for its policies related to the palm oil sector. In addition, BankTrack and the Environmental Paper Network have assessed Credit Suisse’s policies related to the pulp and paper sector.
Between 2016 and 2022, Credit Suisse provided USD 2,234 in credit to companies operating in these forest-risk sectors and held investments amounting to USD 165 as of 2022. For more information, see the links below.
A bank can obtain a total of 10 points for the quality of its policies. The total score is based on their scores per sector, weighted against their financing and investment for each sector. For further details on this see here. Based on their overall score, banks are then classified as Laggards, Followers, Front runners or Leaders, as follows:
A bank can obtain a total of 10 points for the quality of its beef policy. The total score is based on their scores per sector, weighted against their financing and investment for each sector. For further details on this see here. Based on their overall score, banks are then classified as Laggards, Followers, Front runners or Leaders, as follows:
A bank can obtain a total of 10 points for the quality of its palm oil policy. The total score is based on their scores per sector, weighted against their financing and investment for each sector. For further details on this see here. Based on their overall score, banks are then classified as Laggards, Followers, Front runners or Leaders, as follows:
Credit Suisse is a member of the Net Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA) and has therefore committed to reduce its financed emissions to net zero by 2050; within 18 months of joining the alliance set interim targets for 2030 (or sooner) for high emission priority sectors, and within 36 months set further sector targets; set new intermediary targets every 5 years from 2030 onwards; annually publish data on emissions and progress against a transition strategy including climate-related sectoral policies; and take a robust approach to the role of offsets in transition plans. BankTrack track's implementation of these commitments in the NZBA compliance tracker.
BankTrack is keeping track of the public response of Credit Suisse to Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine. Credit Suisse publicly condemned the war. Credit Suisse is considered by Leave-Russia.org to be "scaling back" its operations in Russia. We categorise its exposure to Russia as moderate, with over $1.1bn of financial assets. Credit Suisse supports the Russian fossil fuel industry through investments, loans, and underwriting. For further details, see the table linked below.
Partner organisation Reclaim Finance’s 2023 report on metallurgical coal financing showed that Credit Suisse provided US$ 3.2 billion in loans and underwriting to developers of new metallurgical coal between 2016 and 2022. Find further details on Credit Suisse’s metallurgical coal financing and and how it compares to other large banks globally in the report.
Reclaim Finance tracks the metallurgical coal policies of financial institutions, including banks, in their Coal Policy Tool. BankTrack works closely with Reclaim Finance and endorses their policy assessments. Find further details on their assessment of Credit Suisse’s metallurgical coal policy below.
According to a report by Reclaim Finance, between 2016 and June 2023, Credit Suisse provided $4.5 billion in finance to the fossil-steel industry, making it the 31st largest financier worldwide. Find further details on Mitsubishi Credit Suisse's steel financing and how it compares to other large banks globally in the report.
