LUXEMBOURG – Patrick Whicher, chief executive of Credit Suisse Life & Pensions (Luxemburg), has left the company.

But Clive Griffiths, operations director at the division, declined to either confirm or deny that Whicher was still with the company. And a spokesman for Credit Suisse’s life arm Winterthur also declined to comment.

Whicher had formerly been with unit trust specialist Premier Life (Luxembourg) which was bought by the bank from US-based Standard Management and renamed Credit Suisse Life & Pensions (Luxemburg) in 2002.

The purchase price of 30.2 million euros included Premier’s Luxembourg life insurance business and its Bermuda portfolio.

Credit Suisse said at the time of the acquisition that its medium-term objective was to integrate its existing Luxembourg unit, Winterthur-Europe Vie, with the new acquisition under “one management structure”. Griffiths said Christian Houtekie heads up WEV.

Credit Suisse Life & Pensions reported a segment profit of 354 million Swiss francs (228 million euros) in the first nine months of 2003 – compared to a loss of 1.5 billion francs a year before.