Committed to equality, diversity and inclusion

At Credit Suisse, advancing our culture of inclusion and belonging continues to be a priority and in 2020 we took significant steps to strengthen our approach and enhance our strategy. We are committed to a culture in which everyone has access to opportunities that support their development and in which everyone can reach their potential without barriers. Furthermore, we recognize that the diversity of our workforce, including the different skills, mindsets, knowledge and experience of our employees, gives us a better understanding of our clients’ expectations, cultural backgrounds and regional markets. Ensuring our environment is one where everyone feels they belong and can bring the full scope of their talents to bear will drive our collective ability to innovate and deliver cutting-edge ideas, products and services to our clients.

With social justice at the forefront of our minds, equity, equality, diversity and inclusion must be part of our everyday priorities and we believe the urgency to accelerate change requires our participation and leadership. In order to maximize the impact of our Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) imperative across people management, culture development and our sustainability strategy, we elevated our global D&I function to report to two Executive Board members, to reflect a mandate that is tied not only to Human Resources but also embedded in our new Sustainability, Research & Investment Solutions function (see page 11), providing enhanced oversight and executive focus.

Driven by the full commitment of the Credit Suisse Board of Directors, Executive Board and the senior leadership of all business divisions and functions, we set out additional commitments to accelerate our progress, including:

• Establishing a comprehensive Black Talent Strategy in the US and UK, a focused and targeted effort aimed at increasing the representation and advancement of Black Talent. We have publicly announced a US and UK target to double our Black Talent senior headcount and increase our overall Black Talent representation in those locations by 50% by 2024.
• Continuing our global focus on increasing female representation and advancement by setting a target to increase overall female representation to 42%.
• Building the inclusive leadership competency of managers and increasing active allyship among all colleagues through interactive educational programs across the globe.
• Amplifying the voices of our diverse employees and fostering a culture of open dialogue and an environment that allows room for innovation and progress.
• Proactively engaging with external stakeholders like our communities, clients, investors, suppliers, governments and regulators.
• Our work is underpinned by a broader commitment to help eradicate racism in the workplace as a founding member of the World Economic Forum’s Partnering for Racial Justice in Business Initiative in 2021.

Additionally, as part of the broader evolution of our cultural values, “Inclusion” has been elevated to be one of our six core values – a testimony to how important this is to our culture (see page 38). We also announced further steps toward our commitment by joining “The Valuable 500”, a global movement to put disability on the business agenda, in January 2021. Moreover, Credit Suisse has been included in the Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index (GEI) for the second consecutive year in 2021, underscoring our commitment to transparency in gender-data reporting. In January 2021, we also celebrated our 16th consecutive year of achieving a score of 100% on the Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality Index, which highlights our ongoing efforts to promote LGBT+ equality in the workplace.