Perhaps inevitably after a spying scandal that rocked the Swiss private banking world, there is speculation about the future of its CEO, with reports of tensions between the chairman and himself. A prominent US investor has backed the chief executive, saluting his performance in the role.

The largest single shareholder in Credit Suisse, David Herro, has put his weight behind Credit Suisse chief executive Tidjane Thiam, whose regime has come under fire after the Swiss bank was caught spying on a former top employee who had moved to rival UBS.

Thiam, who has been in the job for more than four years, has not been implicated in the affair. A former chief operating officer has resigned from the bank, however, after a saga that read more like a Cold War spy novel than the staid Swiss world of private banking.

Herro, interviewed by Bloomberg TV on 3 February, lauded Thiam for having “done an extraordinary job” in turning around the fortunes of Credit Suisse over recent years, such as by restructuring its business lines and improving profitability. The Zurich-listed bank is scheduled to issue full-year 2019 and fourth quarter figures on 13 February this year. It is often common to see media speculation about C-suite changes and other matters in the days before a results announcement.

“He has greatly improved the efficiency and the operations of Credit Suisse bank,” Herro said of Thiam. “We have seen a very, very successful turnaround to be executed,” he continued, praising the bank’s results in recent quarters. 

The US investor, whose views are regularly aired by the media, said the scandal about spying on former senior figure Iqbal Khan was a relatively minor issue and irrelevant to the wider wealth management world outside Zurich’s financial district. 

Bloomberg has reported that “tensions are mounting” between Credit Suisse Chairman Urs Rohner and its CEO. Rohner is preparing a list of possible successors to Thiam. The CEO’s allies have urged Rohner to depart on schedule next year when his term as chairman ends, the people said.

Herro referred to an “orchestrated amount of newsflow” over the past few months about Thiam’s position. “I am just puzzled by the whole nature of this episode,” he said. “Mr Thiam looks a bit different from your average Swiss banker”, he said, arguing that some of the attacks on him were “extremely distasteful”. (Thiam is from the Ivory Coast.)

Rohner is also scheduled to step down by 2021, Herro said.