The ever clever Matt Levine suggests that the more banks you charge with crime, the less damaging the charge is.  In Texas, the state employees’ pension fund stopped doing business with Credit Suisse last year because it had “a policy against hiring firms convicted of felonies,” but now that basically all the big banks have been convicted of felonies, it has tossed that policy. Welcome back Credit Suisse! We’ve talked before about how charging all the banks with crimes de-stigmatizes those crimes, and I won’t belabor the point.

Our associate Andres Frank testifified before the US Department of Labor on January 15, 2015 on the Credit Suisse exemption.  Credit Suisse had pled guilty to a criminal charge of aiding and abetting tex evasion by US citizens.  Credit Suisse was granted a temporary exemption, but Maxine Waters, Congresswoman from Callifornia, insisted that a permanent exemption be preceded by hearings.

Perhaps to make it seem that the ‘culture of corruption’ apparent in Credit Suisse could be cured, the CEO stepped down after this hearing.  No final decision has yet been rendered.