Credit Suisse to pay canton of Zurich CHF19m for errors

SWITZERLAND - Credit Suisse has reached an out-of-court settlement with the canton of Zurich over share-price miscalculations for the canton's pension fund (BVK).

Earlier this month, the Swiss bank acknowledged that it made a number of share-price miscalculations for the BVK between 1999 and 2003.

The errors came to light during an ongoing investigation into a corruption scandal surrounding the BVK's former head of asset management, Daniel Gloor.

In a statement, the BVK confirmed that Credit Suisse paid the canton of Zurich approximately CHF18.9m (€15.6m) in compensation.

The canton said the bulk of the money, approximately 90%, would go to the BVK, while the remainder will go to public real estate insurer GVZ.

It also said that Credit Suisse had been co-operative in the matter, and had "expressed regret" for its errors.

Neither the bank nor the canton have been able to comment further on the nature or extent of the errors, as the investigation into the Gloor corruption case is still ongoing.

Nor have they been able to provide further details on what the share prices were related to, or whether the miscalculations were in any way connected with the corruption scandal itself.

A spokeswoman at Credit Suisse previously told IPE that the bank had made "adjustments" since the early 2000s to prevent similar mistakes from happening again.

Meanwhile, the last trial against people allegedly involved in the Gloor corruption scandal has come to a close, but a final verdict in all cases related to the trial are not expected before this winter.