Meltdown: Greed, Scandal, and the Collapse of Credit Suisse

by Duncan Mavin

The incredible story of a once-venerable Swiss bank that produced a litany of financial scandals and whose collapse reveals the amorality at the heart of the global banking system.

Credit Suisse was a 166-year-old bastion of global banking. But a veneer of high-class service disguised a darker, much dirtier reality. From its sterile Zurich headquarters, Credit Suisse banked dictators and drug dealers, hid stolen Nazi gold, and helped corrupt bankers fleece the firm's own clients of billions of dollars. Its top executives oversaw a global operation that laundered money for autocrats; they hired spies to track one another through the cobbled streets of the Swiss financial capital; and they helped clients hide their money from the world’s tax authorities. This is the story of a tawdry total meltdown of one of the biggest, most influential, and most scandal-ridden banks on the planet.

Duncan Mavin is uniquely sourced to tell the story of Credit Suisse’s scandal-ridden demise, with dozens of inside-the-room contacts that spill exclusive details about the bank onto these pages. The bank’s collapse, in March of last year, was the biggest shock to the financial system since the Financial Crisis of 2008, and sparked a media frenzy. But only Duncan has had access to key sources within the bank’s executive suite—including former CEOs—and the inner circle that brings this critical, rollicking story to life.

Meltdown will appeal to the global audience of readers fascinated by the corruption that permeates international finance and who wish to understand the role of money and those who shuffle it around the world in manipulating the world order in their own interests. It is an international tale that takes us from Mozambique to Australia, from Hong Kong to New York, and inside the hushed, marble corridors of Zurich’s banking elite.

Genres: Business, Finance, History, Nonfiction, Economics, Audiobook, Money

336 pages, Hardcover

Published March 4, 2025

About the author

Duncan Mavin is a seasoned international financial journalist. Born and raised near Newcastle, he studied history at Durham University and spent a decade as a chartered accountant in the City and in Toronto. He then became a financial reporter and foreign correspondent for Canada’s National Post. Since 2009, he has been a reporter and editor for Dow Jones publications including the Wall Street Journal, based in Hong Kong, London and New York. Duncan wrote and edited the Journal’s influential Heard on the Street column for several years, and was the Journal’s Financial Editor for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. He was also the Managing Editor for Barron’s Group. His writing has also appeared in Barron’s, Financial News and on Bloomberg News. He lives with his wife and three sons in the UK, and is a long-suffering fan of Sunderland football club.

Reviews

[Chrissie · Rating 3 out of 5]

An easy listen. Some things I knew about, but still worth a listen.

[Bobo_helix · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a straightforward chronicle of all the major events that have occurred at credit suites over the past 30 years. Scandals, fines and changes in senior management, one after another, in a very plain style. While it serves as a good reminder of what actually happened, it lacks deep analysis and insights into the underlying reasons

[doomedsardines · Rating 3 out of 5]

From the very first pages of the book it already felt biased to me, Duncan refers to Alfred Escher as flawed, trying to make up the argument that CS was destined to fail from its very start, yet it survived and prosper for almost 170 years, when one tweet brought it down almost overnight.

With every chapter and every part, this Anglo-Saxon arrogance of the author is crystallizing even more, highlighting another flaw or mistake. You can almost feel the author saying “See, I told you so”, when another regulator come visit the office and penalties are enforced on the bank, putting another nail in the CS coffin.

Surprisingly it was partly the success that brought CS down to its knees. After GFC in 2008, while many banks were bailed out by governments, UBS included. CS was in a better shape, require no support due to their lover exposure to subprime loans. While government intervened, pushing UBS to restructure and reduce risk taking, CS has continued on its unobstructed path towards oblivion.

For me, collapse of CS is also a testimonial to “culture eats strategy for breakfast”. The CSFB was far too long not integrated with the Swiss part of the bank and the culture of trust, wasn’t calling for rule enforcement over the US and UK colleagues doing far riskier investment banking. While many CEOs tried to implement some kind of tighter risk control measures, it didn’t change the people behavior. Greed was (and is) a driving factor in investment banking.

While there are some parallels made to UBS, book lacks the comparison to other major world banks, especially the big US investments banks where scandals were as common. At some point I felt that SEC and DOJ went much harder after the foreign banks (CS included) in comparison to the local US players. Or, perhaps, they knew much better how to avoid being caught.

The book feels rather dry to read, and closely resembles another FT’s long read. Facts are coming one after the other, sometimes without much analysis. I missed life stories and anecdotes from the banking life, which might have created some sympathy to the bank. Guess, it was not the target of Mavin to create a positive image of the bank.

[Amanda Long · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.4 stars. Very well-written and takes you through all the key issues that brought Credit Suisse down.

[Nouvel Diamant]

This is a readable history of Credit Suisse although a bit superficial, too much focused on name-dropping and the investment banking business in the US.

Unfortunately, the book is not very accurate in the details and is even partly wrong. Examples include:

Page 24 in order to get from Italy to Chiasso, you do not travel through the Gotthard tunnel

The material mortgages losses in Switzerland in the early 1990's are completely missing (with irresponsable mortgage files, etc.)

The material losses with the 'Erb Group' in Switzerland are completely missing (with similar issues and patterns than decades later with Archegos)

Page 149 The positions held that Thiam claimed were not known to him and the CFO were standard agenda items in a compulsory meeting for the CEO - this was also one main reason why Thiam lost all his credibility in the investment bank. Apart from the fact, that the CFO David Mathers knew every screw in the company as everyone knew.

Page 209 Greensill Investments were promoted as risk-free while the offered yields were at the edge of investment grade, so this investment proposal was fishy from the beginning.

Page 220 Archegos, also here a bit of a lost strapline - Credit Suisse accounted for 50% of the Archegos losses in the entire industry. Further, there is a fair Credit Suisse paper summarizing ten 'chances' / risk alerts Credit Suisse missed to pull the plug.

Page 243 'FINMA was tootless with limited powers for punishing misconduct' - that is not accurate: FINMA can remove BoD and ExB members and issue instructions to the executive bodies of the bank - and FINMA choose not to do any of that...

Page 271 'Capital was an issue at Credit Suisse but it wasn't the primary cause of death'. Agree to disagree: 'Credit Suisse AG Parent Bank' was undercapitalized and this prevented necessary restructuring of the Credit Suisse US-businesses. Therefore, the capital issue was the beginning from the end of Credit Suisse...

[Aleksandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

An insightful and well-researched dive into one of the biggest financial scandals in recent history; a pretty solid job unpacking the chaos, corruption, and sheer arrogance that led to Credit Suisse’s dramatic downfall if you ask me

It’s both fascinating and infuriating - a reminder of how greed and ego can rot even the most prestigious institutions from the inside out



One thing I really have to pin out, which has been bugging me quite a lot, is that the pacing isn’t always consistent: some sections flow smoothly, while others get ✨bogged✨ down in dense financial jargon and lengthy background details
At times, it reads more like an extended newspaper investigation than a narrative-driven exposé, which made it hard to stay fully engaged (at least from my perspective)



Still, this book succeeds in painting a clear picture of how systemic failure and corporate culture collided to create a perfect storm




It’s definitely not a light read, but if you’re intrigued by real-world financial drama and the inner workings of global banking, it’s worth the time🙂‍↕️

[Tom Lewandowski · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's a fine chronicle of the last 40 years of scandals in the life of credit suisse with a heavy focus on the last half decade. If you have read the financial press in that time there is not much new information here. Very gossipy at times and severely lacking a comparative analysis to other banks outside of a handful of asides about how UBS was doing at certain times when credit suisse was failing. Was Credit Suisse particularly scandal prone? The author seems to imply that the disconnect between the American side which was investment banking focused and the Swiss side which was doing private banking and wealth management was something unique to credit suisse that made it impossible to manage but all of the major banks are multinational institutions now. Are they all as dysfunctional as this and vulnerable to bank runs? They would say no but the recurring theme of this book is executives being blindsided by every new scandal at this institution (the author is a well connected financial journalist who gives anonymity to his sources, a massive amount of ass covering is going on here I'm sure) so how is the public supposed to just take their word for it? What does it say about the ability of capitalism to self regulate that a structurally important bank was allowed to run itself directly into the ground with no one stopping it? These types of questions are briefly touched in the epilogue along with the standard business press recommendations (pay is too high, regulators need to do better, individual accountability, etc) but it's hardly a serious consideration of what is needed to bring the financial system in line and prevent something like this from happening again.

[Daniel Sanders · Rating 4 out of 5]

If there was any great scandal of corporate malfeasance over the past 15 years, Credit Suisse were usually involved (Greensill, 1MDB, Mozambique tuna bonds, Archegos, Russian sanctions busting). Staggering array of issues and a persistent culture of prioritising risk-taking over governance and acting in the best interest of your client.

[Lwazi Bangani · Rating 3 out of 5]

I appreciate that the book chronicles the reckless mismanagement and toxic culture that led to Credit Suisse’s collapse, exposing the bank’s systemic failures and flawed leadership. While the Swiss narrative unfairly blames Tidjane Thiam, it inadvertently highlights a broader issue: the dangers of an over-reliance on too-big-to-fail banks, which distort economies and social priorities by privatizing gains and socializing losses.

[Antony Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

a financial journalist’s account

Good easy read for someone who wants to have a quick understanding of the banking crisis that almost rattled the global financial networks. Sounds and reads like a summary of various news reports or a period of time so definitely good marks for the research work.

[Ignacio Jimenez · Rating 3 out of 5]

It reads like a newspaper. All the major events that led to the downfall of CS are described here, however, it lacks an insightful analysis of the “whys” behind the scandals.

[Venky · Rating 4 out of 5]

In March 2023, Credit Suisse was taken over by its archival UBS, thereby bringing the curtains down on a kaleidoscopic saga of greed, ambition, and hubris. Repeatedly racked by scandals and consistently embroiled in sleazy business deals, the once storied and venerable behemoth of the banking and finance industry was finally brought down to its knees.

Financial journalist Duncan Mavin, in Meltdown, chronicles in compelling detail the continuing excesses at Credit Suisse which led to the financial institution’s collapse. The reader at times is left wondering whether the 275 pages represent a mere primer into the financial and ethical chicanery practiced by the head honchos operating at the highest levels of power and politics.

Just a year before the bank was gobbled up by UBS a revealing report prepared internally described the unenviable state the bank found itself in. With a burgeoning headcount and accumulating expenditure to rival that of the hugely successful investment bank Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse generated a meagre fifth of Goldman’s per capita revenue. The lopsided policy of the bank is captured in a telling detail shared by Mavin. While staring at cumulative losses of more than $2 billion over a decade leading to its consequential takeover, the bank had doled out a whopping $35 billion in bonuses during the same period.

Straddling two continents, Credit Suisse found itself in a continuous struggle to establish a definite identity. As Mavin informs his readers, the cultural differences between Zurich and New York prevented a permanent acculturation of thoughts and deeds. When John Mack, the former President of Morgan Stanley, was hired by Credit Suisse to head its Wall Street operations, he refused to learn German (language of Credit Suisse’s Board) and constant clashes with the senior management ensured that Mack’s tenure lasted all of three years.

The gamut of scandals permeating Credit Suisse range from the bewildering to the banal. In the year 2018, former Credit Suisse advisor Pascale Lescaudron was convicted by a Swiss court in 2018 of having forged the signatures of former clients, over an eight-year period. One of the clients included former Georgian Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili.

An appalling lack of internal controls within the bank led to the unearthing of a scandal surrealist in its sweep and wake. Bankers at the London office of Credit Suisse arranged for representatives of the Mozambique government to borrow $500 million towards procurement of a fleet of tuna-fishing boats. When the dust finally settled on the deal, approximately $200 million of the loan went towards kickbacks to Credit Suisse bankers and Mozambican government officials. Even though knowledgeable of a material shortfall between the funds raised and the value of boats bought, the bank failed in its fiduciary duties to disclose this to investors.

The government of Mozambique withstood the worst of the swindle when the International Monetary Fund (“IMF”) pulled its support for the country after details became known about Mozambique admitting to existence of $1.4 billion in undisclosed loans arranged by Credit Suisse, right under the nose of the IMF.

Credit Suisse has also been a revolving door for Chief Executives. Every controversy at the bank has been inevitably preceded by and invariably succeeded by departing and income CEO, respectively. For example, the tumultuous reign of Tidjane Thiam, a French and Ivorian national was marred by the “Spy gate” incident. A former associate at the Bank who had fallen out of favours with Thiam, before heading to UBS was followed by private detectives. Even though Thiam denied any knowledge about the covert surveillance activity, the perpetrators of the misdeed were assigned the job by a consultant working for ‘Credit Suisse’s Chief Operating Officer.”

Meltdown, a sordid tale of unfettered greed and gluttony.

[Daphne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book follows Credit Suisse from its inception in the 1850s to the chaotic acquisition by UBS in 2023 that prevented a potentially deadly shock to a precarious global financial system. The author presents a comprehensive chronology of Credit Suisse’s repeated misconduct, such as laundering money for Bulgarian drug traffickers, obstructing Holocaust victims’ families from accessing their relatives’ accounts so that the money could be absorbed into the bank, facilitating sanctions violations for autocratic regimes, and establishing offshore accounts for U.S. tax evaders. These scandals were not isolated; rather, they were both an open secret and part of an institutionalized operating model born of a corporate culture of profits over all else.

One thing that did surprise me was the oversized effect of social media in accelerating Credit Suisse’s demise. Following a tweet from an Australian reporter stating that an unnamed global bank was on the brink of collapse, Twitter and Reddit collectively decided that the bank in question must be Credit Suisse, leading top clients to withdraw their funds and ultimately creating a self-fulfilling prophecy.

However, I did find that the book leans a bit too heavily on narrative rather than incorporating analysis. There was also a missed opportunity to cover the US DOJ investigation into CS for its role in allowing Russian sanctions evasion following the invasion of Ukraine (this topic was only discussed for one sentence).

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book very much in the same vein as Dark Towers about Deutsche Bank—at times you wonder if they could have been written by the same author. Both trace the familiar failures of weak controls, flawed risk metrics, and incentive systems that rewarded reckless risk-taking above all else.

The difference, of course, is that while Deutsche Bank still limps along, Credit Suisse didn’t survive. Its fingerprints seemed to be on every major financial scandal of the past two decades—Archegos, 1MDB, Greensill—before finally collapsing into the arms of UBS.

What struck me most here, compared to Dark Towers, was Credit Suisse’s combative stance toward regulators. Rather than settling quickly when caught, the bank often fought investigations for years, souring relationships with authorities across multiple jurisdictions. That stubborn resistance arguably accelerated its downfall.

Another fascinating thread was the history of Swiss banking secrecy. It began with a genuine ethos of protecting privacy, but the book shows how, over time, it morphed into a shield for fraud and illicit money flows.

Overall, an engaging and seemingly well-researched account. While it reads mostly as fact, I’d be curious to see a rebuttal from someone who spent their career inside Credit Suisse—there are surely perspectives worth hearing from the other side.

[Richard Thompson · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is perhaps the most boring financial history book that I have ever read. The author's announced basic thesis that the defining characteristic of Credit Suisse was its American/Swiss dual nature seemed like a promising idea that could be fully developed over the course of the book, but it never went anywhere. I didn't care about the bank or the people or their successes or their failures. Even when they did massive deals that were worth billions, I didn't care. Almost all banks have their share of greedy crooks who stretch the rules and lose massive amounts of money when the pigeons come home to roost. Credit Suisse may have had more than it share, but who cares? If you are going to write a financial morality tale, then give me a real flim flammer like Bernie Madoff, not these gray-suited boring Swiss cheaters. Yawn. And then the bank has another big loss thanks to a new group of cowboys. Yawn. And then another. Yawn.... and another.... and so on until the final collapse. Loud snores.....

[Brian]

Breezy read on the history of the failed scandal-ridden Swiss bank with a focus on the foibles of its various CEOs and chairmen. I knew disparate bits of the affairs the bank had facilitated (money laundering for drug traffickers, Mozambique fishing and gas schemes, tax evasion for rich Americans, sanction-busting for Russian oligarchs, Greensill Capital and Archegos, spying on staff, among many others), but this narrative brought them all together to show how the bank's history, culture, and practices was rooted in complacency and chasing quick profits without any moral scrupulosity. Ultimately, the bank was done in by the constant turnover in leadership, failure to build and stick to a coherent plan, and refusal to build out proper controls. A greater lesson lurks between the lines - what will come upon the world's financial systems if profit-seeking is unchecked, regulators defanged, and rich men get to make all the rules?

[Danielle Hong · Rating 5 out of 5]

Overall a very good book giving a good overview on Credit Suisse spanning its long history and zoomed in more to recent few decades and past few years of mishaps and scandals. Many of the incidents covered had been published and discussed in greater details in the industry, reading a summarised version and seeing how each and everyone of them gradually contributed to the bank's demise felt surreal. Some of the day to day count down gave a great sense of urgency and weight of the events as they unfolded. It reminds me of another book, Too Big Too Fail on GFC, and history continues, as the person oversaw the UBS CS takeover reminisced the Morgan Stanley's 9 billion bail out. Good book. Worth reading.

[David Mayo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Michael Lewis it ain't, but what Melvin lacks in terms of telling compelling narratives through strong characters, he makes up for in a clear, structured essay on the stickiness of bad corporate culture, how it pervades all it touches and what ultimately high finance is about the confit people place in institutions, and what happens when those institutions persistently betray that confidence.

This book is probably more interesting if you're a keen reader of financial news and it's unlikely to pull you in if you don't have at least some of the details. But it's an important record of everything that went wrong over the span of nearly 60 years and should be read by those that have a role to play in integrity and compliance culture at large organisations.

[Alex Campbell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Duncan Mavin's 'Meltdown' takes the reader through the history of Credit Suisse, from humble beginnings to its catastrophic downfall. Mavin neatly links together the series of scandals to form one overarching narrative. This makes for a satisfying read but the book lacks sufficient evidence for this causal chain, ultimately rendering its conclusions less impactful. This lightness of detail around the technical aspects behind Credit Suisse's myriad issues is the tradeoff that Mavin made to prioritise readability and mass-market appeal. As a result its worth for the serious analyst is diminished.

[Jim Milway · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very readable review of the troubled history of a major Swiss bank. The bank kept caroming from crisis to crisis - mostly self -inflicted. As other reviewers have pointed out it would be great if the author had provided some insight as to why such awful decisions and actions emanated from this particular bank. It seemed to be in Credit Suisse's DNA.

I noted two small editing errors - it's Boston Consulting and not Boston Consultants. It's BlackBerry not Blackberry. Picky, I know. But if the editor can't catch those easy ones are there some important facts the author got wrong but weren't caught? Another reviewer identified several factual errors.

[Sean Flatley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This a brilliant non-non-fiction book on the downfall of Credit Suisse.
The book is well written and so additives that it kept me up well into the night as I couldn't put it down.
It is a brilliant read of a book and highly recommended book for anyone doing the accountancy course or interested in Fraud Accountancy.
Overall a great read and I definitely will be rereading it again soon.
Best wishes Sean

[Marco Zaliani · Rating 4 out of 5]

Il libro è molto interessante e spiega nel dettaglio gli scandali e gli errori che hanno portato al collasso di credit suisse. Scorrevole e di facile lettura, uniche pecche lo stile troppo da articolo e la poca caratterizzazione dei personaggi raccontati. Nel complesso comunque un libro che vale la pena leggere se si è poco avvezzi ai dettagli che hanno portato al collasso della banca e di come funziona il mondo bancario internazionale

[Jc · Rating 3 out of 5]

I suspect the readership of this book will be limited to people who used to work there. It was interesting for me, particularly the parts when I was there. Even though the writer seems to have a beef against banks and bankers the story is well documented and it reads very well; with a few falsehoods that I could spot for the period I knew. All in all a sad story.

[David A. Rosow · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thorough rendition of a troubled bank failing

Hats of to Duncan Mavin for his intensively researched analysis of CS and it’s continuous run of ineptitude. Sometimes developing strategic plans take too much time to develop, are dreadfully inadequate and a waste of time for all involved.

[M Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author's book on the Greensill scandal contained a lot of investigative reporting. This does not meet that standard - it easily could be decades of Financial Times articles woven together. There was very little that was news to me and I am not an insider, merely an observer with a good memory.

[Zulfiqar Khan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A compelling read about the story behind the bank, its rise and eventual collapse. Major episodes in the bank’s history are covered so as to provide just enough background about a situation, and as a consequence not every aspect is delved into in great detail. The most interesting parts of the book are the descriptions of the culture and risk approach that prevailed over several decades.

[Neha · Rating 3 out of 5]

kinda underwhelmed..the calibre of analysis in the epilogue should have been seen more in the book itself but sadly was not. there was so much to analyse ...including the regulators' responsibilities...the book trudged along and suddenly got over...the ending just as sudden as CS collapse. I feel like this book might well have been an offshoot of Mavin's research for his greensill book.

[Julian Walker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Instantly engaging this is a superb tale, brilliantly told, of the arrogance that the modern financial systems enabled.

Staggering and breathtaking in equal parts this is a gripping true tale of how one bank tried to roll the dice again and again to double down on covering up its own shady practices - and lost.

A fab read.

[Tobi Peters · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm tempted to give five stars just for the closing paragraphs of the book where the author makes a valid point on Moral hazard. It is a poignant one.

The author aptly traces the history of Credit Suisse and rounds up with where it has found itself, it's ultimate demise.

[Massimiliano Campagnoli · Rating 5 out of 5]

L'autore ha riassunto la storia con i suoi principali eventi che hanno portato al fallimento della storica banca svizzera Credit Suisse. Dettagliato, scorrevole e capace di identificare le principali anomalie che hanno messo fine alla storia della banca.