Credit Suisse ‘sorry’ for black caretaker dance act at chairman's 60th birthday bash

Ex-chief executive Tidjane Thiam ‘left room after dancer began to sweep floor onstage’

Former Credit Suisse chief executive Tidjane Thiam (left) and chairman Urs Rohner attend an annual shareholders' meeting of the Swiss banking group in April 2017. Mr Thiam allegedly left his table at Show more

Global investment bank Credit Suisse apologised on Tuesday for causing "offence” after its former chief executive left the chairman’s birthday party when a black performer dressed as a caretaker started dancing on stage.

Ivory Coast-born Tidjane Thiam, the chief executive of the Swiss lender from 2015 until February this year, reportedly walked out of the room during the performance at chairman Urs Rohner’s 6oth birthday celebration, according to a report in the New York Times.

"There was never any intention to cause offence, and we are sorry for any offence caused," a spokesman told The National.

“Credit Suisse is strongly committed to equality, diversity and supporting all our employees."

The party, held in a restaurant in Zurich, Switzerland, last November, had a 1970s theme centred around Studio 54, a famous New York nightclub that opened in 1977. The guest list included friends, family and business contacts with Mr Thiam reportedly the only black guest at the event.

During the celebration, a black dancer took to the stage dressed as a caretaker and began to sweep the stage floor which prompted Mr Thiam to leave his table followed by his partner and another executive.

Mr Thiam returned to the party later in the evening to find a group of Mr Rohner’s friends had taken to the stage in Afro wigs for a separate musical performance.

Neither the bank nor Mr Rohner were involved in the organisation of the party at the restaurant with the caretaker performance one of about 10 acts that also included performers from Russia and China, according to UK media reports.

The incident is another blow for Credit Suisse, which was reprimanded by a US administrative law judge last month for failing to produce documents in its latest spying scandal, after a former executive accused the bank of spying on her in 2017.

Credit Suisse was ordered to hand over the documents in a case filed by Colleen Graham, a former employee who ran a software joint venture between Credit Suisse and Palantir Technologies in the US. The bank is contesting the allegations, which it describes as “frivolous".

In the first two spying cases, Credit Suisse admitted that one of its former star bankers and its human resources chief were shadowed by detectives on the streets of Zurich. Pierre-Olivier Bouee, the bank’s then-chief operating officer, admitted culpability for the surveillance and handed in his resignation, with Mr Thiam, the first black chief executive of a major European bank, resigning shortly afterwards.

Credit Suisse’s board allegedly forced Mr Thiam’s resignation, because the scandal erupted on his watch.

Since Mr Thiam’s departure, there are no black executives at that level left, with the events at the party taking place before the Black Lives Matter protests blew up in the US and wider western world over the death of American George Floyd, 46, who died on May 25 after a white police officer knelt on his neck for about nine minutes during an arrest in Minnesota.

A number of colleagues who worked with Mr Thiam at Credit Suisse, as as well as close contacts, have indicated that  race was an ever-present factor during his time at the bank, and a contributing factor to his speedy departure, according to the New York Times.

Credit Suisse said it has taken steps to address racial issues within the company, by “taking additional strides to show our commitment to under-represented groups within the firm”.

“It is also putting in place broader initiatives to further this,” the spokesman said. “As a company, we are proud to be a geographically and culturally diverse group, and we strive to further strengthen this culture, which supports all our colleagues.”

Credit Suisse’s apology comes as Legal & General, one of Britain's biggest investment companies, said all FTSE 100 companies hire a non-white director by 2022 and issued a warning that it would vote against firms that still have an all-white board by the deadline.

The move echoes the Confederation of British Industry’s call last week that the UK’s biggest companies should have at least one black, Asian, or ethnic minority member on their boards by 2021. It cited research from global consultancy McKinsey that companies with more gender and ethnic diversity were likely to be more profitable than their peers.