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The Pension Fund of Credit Suisse Group (Switzerland) comprises two foundations:

PF – Pension capital savings and PF2 – Retirement capital savings. Its main goal is to promote the interests of its insured and those entitled to a pension from the Pension Fund.

PF - Pension capital savings
PF2 - Retirement capital savings

The PF – Pension capital administers in particular the pension capital savings pension pot.

 

Board of Trustees

As the highest governing body, the Board of Trustees manages and supervises the Pension Fund of Credit Suisse Group (Switzerland). The Board of Trustees consists of an equal number of employer and employee representatives, as follows:

  • Six employer representatives
  • Six employee representatives

The following are members of the Board of Trustees for the 2021–2024 term of office:

Employer representatives

Joachim OechslinChairman of the Board of Trustees
André HelfensteinCEO Swiss Universal Bank
CEO Credit Suisse (Schweiz) AG
Claude TäschlerSenior Advisor to the CEO Swiss Bank
Burkhard VarnholtGlobal Chief Investment Officer
Niklaus BoserGeneral Counsel Asset Management
Christian StarkHead of Regulatory Affairs Switzerland

Employee representatives

Moreno Ardia Vice-Chairman
Employee representative German-speaking Switzerland
Damian Hodel Employee representative German-speaking Switzerland
Daniel Egli  Employee representative German-speaking Switzerland
Gaby Kuchta-Schmidt Employee representative German-speaking Switzerland
Timoteo Gandolfi Employee representative French- and
Italian-speaking Switzerland
Christian Braun Employee representative Companies
affiliated with Credit Suisse

PF 2 – Retirement capital savings administers in particular the retirement capital savings pension pot based on the investment strategy selected by the insured.

Board of Trustees

As the highest governing body, the Board of Trustees manages and supervises the Pension Fund 2 of Credit Suisse Group (Switzerland). The Board of Trustees consists of an equal number of employer and employee representatives, as follows:

  • six employer representatives
  • six employee representatives

The following are members of the Board of Trustees for the 2021–2024 term of office:

Employer representatives

Joachim OechslinChairman of the Board of Trustees
André HelfensteinCEO Swiss Universal Bank
CEO Credit Suisse (Schweiz) AG
Claude TäschlerSenior Advisor to the CEO Swiss Bank
Burkhard VarnholtGlobal Chief Investment Officer
Niklaus BoserGeneral Counsel Asset Management
Christian StarkHead of Regulatory Affairs Switzerland

Employee representatives

Moreno Ardia Vice-Chairman
Employee representative German-speaking Switzerland
Damian Hodel Employee representative German-speaking Switzerland
Daniel Egli Employee representative German-speaking Switzerland
Gaby Kuchta-Schmidt Employee representative German-speaking Switzerland
Arnaud Erhard Employee representative French- and Italian-speaking Switzerland
Christian Braun Employee representative for Companies affiliated with Credit Suisse

If a member of the Board of Trustees resigns from his or her post during the term of office, a replacement member will join the Board, according to the provisions of the election regulations. Replacement Board members serve the remainder of their predecessor's term of office.

Duties of the Board of Trustees

During their four-year term of office, the members of the Board of Trustees promote the interests of those insured by the Pension Fund. This body appoints the management, the pensions actuary, the auditors, and the Investment Committee. The Board of Trustees determines the overall strategy for the Pension Fund and monitors its implementation. It also defines guiding principles for the areas of pension provision, investment of assets, organization, communication, and training for members of the Board of Trustees. It keeps the insured informed and is the point of contact for the Staff Council of Credit Suisse AG (Switzerland).

The Board of Trustees issues various sets of regulations. The main regulations include the following:

  • Pension Fund Regulations
    The Pension Fund Regulations are of fundamental importance for the insured as they define the contribution payments and benefit entitlements.
  • Organizational Regulations
    The Organizational Regulations provide an overview of the duties and responsibilities of the individual bodies.
  • Investment Regulations
    The Investment Regulations govern the procedures, competencies and monitoring cycles for the investment of the Pension Fund's assets.

In addition, the Board of Trustees is responsible for:

  • Approving the financial statements and the annual report
  • Defining and reviewing the investment strategy and strategic bandwidths
  • Regularly reviewing investment activities and measuring performance
  • Determining the fluctuation reserve
Investment Committee
Audit and Risk Committee
ALM Committee
Compensation and Promotion Committee
Executive Committee

The Investment Committee is the specialist body responsible for the management of the foundation's assets. It prepares the basis for investment-related decisions by the Board of Trustees and manages the implementation of these decisions.

The tasks of the Investment Committee include:

  • Setting the tactical bandwidths on the basis of the investment strategy defined by the Board of Trustees;
  • Specifying the investment instruments, to the extent that these have not been defined in the investment concept laid down by the Board of Trustees;
  • Defining the principles for issuing mortgage loans;
  • Approving transactions to optimize the risk or return ratio within the scope defined by the Board of Trustees (securities lending, reimbursement of commissions, etc.);
  • Ongoing monitoring of the overall asset base, the performance of individual asset categories as compared with the investment strategy, and individual mandates.

The following are members of the Investment Committee:

PF – Pension capital savings

PF 2 – Retirement capital savings

The Audit and Risk Committee assists the Board of Trustees in relation to financial reporting, risk management and compliance with statutory provisions.

The tasks of the Audit and Risk Committee include:

  • Evaluating the financial statements and the annual report;
  • Participating in the closing meetings with the auditors on the interim and year-end audit;
  • Participating in the closing meeting after an audit by the bank's internal audit;
  • Assessing the Pension Fund's risk management as well as the functioning and robustness of the internal control system;
  • Monitoring compliance with statutory regulations, in particular the loyalty and integrity regulations.

The following are members of the Audit and Risk Committee:

PF – Pension capital savings

 The ALM Committee has the following responsibilities:

  • Prepares the recommendations for strategic requirements for the Board of Trustees.
  • Ensures and coordinates implementation of the ALM process (and the corresponding ALM study).
  • Ensures financial and structural risk ability is adequately taken into account when preparing recommendations for strategic requirements for the Board of Trustees.
  • Ensures the appropriateness of the capital market assumptions (CMAs) when preparing recommendations for strategic requirements for the Board of Trustees.
  • Ensures and coordinates the ongoing monitoring of risk ability.
  • Defines and ensures implementation of appropriate measures in the event of relevant changes to the risk ability and CMAs.
  • Defines pertinent trigger points for the monitoring of risk ability, including the funding ratio.
  • Monitors compliance with the ALM regulations; is responsible for periodic review of the procedural organization; and determines the entity to carry out the ALM study.

The following members are represented:

PF – Pension capital savings

The Compensation and Promotion Committee of the Pension Fund supports the Board of Trustees in performing their management tasks by defining the remuneration for the Pension Fund's employees.

The Compensation and Promotion Committee's responsibilities include the following tasks in the context of the annual remuneration process: 

  • Direct setting of the remuneration for the Pension Fund Management
  • Approving the remuneration pool for other employees
  • Preparing promotions and making decisions about promotions
  • Provision of information to the Board of Trustees on the results of the remuneration process.

The Compensation and Promotion Committee, which comprises at least three members of the Board of Trustees, ensures that the setting of remuneration is comprehensible and adheres to the bank's compensation principles.

The following are members of the Compensation and Promotion Committee: 

PF – Pension capital savings

The Executive Committee plans and manages the Meetings of the Board of Trustees. 

The Executive Committee has the following responsibilities:

  • Planning the meetings of the Board of Trustees for the calendar year
  • Determining and preparing the meeting agendas
  • Decisions regarding insured Events and applications to the Board of Trustees. 

The following members are represented:

PF – Pension capital savings and PF 2 – Retirement capital savings

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