“It’s especially confusing, if not extraordinary, to see many of the people who were in charge over the years saying they did everything correctly in relation to the management and supervision of Credit Suisse,” UBS chief Sergio Ermotti said during a May 15th speech at the University of Zurich.1 “Everyone who was involved needs to critically analyse the role they played and face up to their responsibilities,” Ermotti urged. “It takes courage to own up to shortcomings,” he added, “But we must learn from past mistakes.”
There have been many efforts at learning from the events of last spring. Speaking at London’s Mansion House in October, UK Prudential Regulation Authority chief Sam Woods summed up one important lesson succinctly: “Money isn’t everything,” he said. “Financial resources are important, but they are not everything a firm needs to survive.”2 Pointing to Credit Suisse, in this connection, Woods noted several factors that contributed to the loss of confidence it suffered, “serious recurrent conduct and risk management failures” chief among them.
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