Executive oversight

The Executive Board is the most senior management body of the Group and is responsible for the Group’s day-to-day operational management under the leadership of the CEO. The Executive Board currently consists of 11 members, appointed by the Board of Directors.

The Executive Board has several standing committees, which are chaired by one or more Executive Board members and meet periodically throughout the year and/or as required. These committees are:

• The Executive Board Risk Forum: The Executive Board Risk Forum is responsible for determining the management strategy for critical risk and compliance issues at the Group and/or cross-divisional level.
• Capital Allocation & Risk Management Committee (CARMC): CARMC is responsible for overseeing and directing our risk profile, recommending risk limits at the Group level to the Risk Committee and the Board, establishing and allocating risk appetite among the various businesses, reviewing new significant business strategies or changes in business strategies including business migrations, making risk-related decisions on escalations and for applying measures, methodologies and tools to monitor and manage the risk portfolio.
• Valuation Risk Management Committee (VARMC): VARMC is responsible for establishing policies regarding the valuation of certain material assets and the policies and calculation methodologies applied in the valuation process.
• Group Conduct and Ethics Board (CEB): Co-chaired by the SRI CEO and the Global Head of Human Resources, the Group CEB ensures robust oversight of culture and conduct topics. It oversees how conduct and ethics matters are handled within the divisions and corporate functions and ensures consistency and the alignment of practices across the Group. The Group CEB conducts reviews of employee sanctions and may perform subsequent evaluations for specific matters that have been escalated by the CEBs established for each division and the corporate functions. The Group CEB also oversees the activities of the conduct and ethics ombudsperson. The role of the conduct and ethics ombudsperson was created in 2018 as a result of a review of the Group’s global approach to handling claims of sexual harassment. The ombudsperson is accountable directly to the CEO and the Group Conduct and Ethics Board. The ombudsperson’s role is to serve as a point of immediate escalation when sexual harassment claims arise and to ensure there is appropriate awareness of and attention to such claims.

Further to the above Executive Board standing committees, a bank-wide Sustainability Leadership Committee has been established, chaired by the CEO of SRI and a newly created Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO) function. In the Sustainability Leadership Committee, senior representatives from each division and control function meet to drive and execute our sustainability strategy.

For more details on our broader governance, please refer to Credit Suisse’s Annual Report 2020.