Credit Suisse CEO Tidjane Thiam resigns after spying scandal

The board of directors unanimously accepted Thiam's resignation at a meeting on Thursday, appointing Credit Suisse veteran Thomas Gottstein as the new CEO, the Swiss investment bank said in a statement Friday.

Thiam will step down following the presentation of 2019's fourth quarter and annual results next week.

"I have agreed with the Board that I will step down from my role as CEO. I am proud of what the team has achieved during my tenure," Thiam said in the statement, adding that he "will be an enthusiastic supporter of my colleagues, as they continue to build momentum in the business."

Credit Suisse has been struggling to draw a line under a surveillance scandal that has rocked the Swiss banking system.

Last year, Credit Suisse's ex-chief operating officer, Pierre-Olivier Bouée, was implicated in two separate spying operations, one involving the former head of wealth management Iqbal Khan. Khan had left Credit Suisse for crosstown rival UBS.

Bouée stepped down after that operation came to light. More recently, he was blamed for ordering a spying operation on Credit Suisse's former head of human resources for several days last February.

Credit Suisse said that Bouée had not informed Thiam or any other member of the bank's senior leadership of the surveillance on Khan. It added in December that it found no indication that Thiam and other members of the executive board or board of directors knew anything about the second spying case until the media reported on it.

Bouée and Thiam worked closely together for nearly two decades at various firms before joining the Swiss bank, according to their Credit Suisse biographies. The pair were at McKinsey in Paris between 2000 and 2002. Bouée followed Thiam to British insurer Aviva (AIVAF) in 2004. They both joined Prudential, another British insurer, in 2008 before heading to Credit Suisse in 2015.

-- This story is developing.