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Within four years, Tidjane Thiam and Iqbal Khan went from the hopefuls of Swiss banking to the center of a tawdry scandal. For those losing track amid the flurry of news, finews.asia compiled a timeline of the key developments.
October 2015: From Consultant to Private Banker
It was an inofficial knighting: new Credit Suisse CEO Tidjane Thiam singled out Iqbal Khan as a «star» during a presentation on the Swiss bank’s new strategy. Together with Swiss boss Thomas Gottstein and Asia head Helman Sitohang, Khan was to cement wealth management as the cornerstone of Credit Suisse’s strategy.
Before being vaulted into top management at 39, Khan was no wallflower: he was the unit’s finance chief for two years before it was split into Switzerland, Asia, and an international component. The Swiss banker was always ambitious: he made partner at EY at just 31, the consulting company’s youngest ever in Switzerland. As UBS’ lead auditor during his time at EY, Khan knows the Swiss wealth giant inside out.
2016 to 2018: Tidjane Thiam’s Overachievers
While hopes for rapid Asian growth fizzled amid turbulent markets and the Swiss raced towards an (eventually scrapped) partial listing, Khan got busy delivering on Thiam’s targets. At the end of 2018, he was one of just two top executives to fulfill the CEO’s goals.
More risk became a hallmark of the Credit Suisse revamp – especially as UBS battened down the hatches. While Khan opened the credit faucets wide, ensuring fat margins, archrival UBS stayed conservative on lending.
August 16, 2018: Top European Banker Shut Out
Against the backdrop of Khan’s success, an additional «regionalization» looked like a footnote at the time. The demotion of European boss Claudio de Sanctis has since emerged as the first time that simmering tensions between Khan and Thiam boiled over within Credit Suisse.
Angered by a perceived slight from de Sanctis at a ritzy off-site meeting, Thiam demanded that Khan collect «damaging material» on the key banker, according to a Swiss media report. Khan refused, which marked the beginning of the heated dispute with Thiam that led a key lieutenant to have the private banker tailed. The Credit Suisse CEO took to Instagram to deny the depiction.
