Credit Suisse's Thiam dons hat and cape to join Swiss spring parade

[April 19, 2016]  By Joshua Franklin

ZURICH (Reuters) - Credit Suisse's Tidjane Thiam, under pressure after a more than 40 percent fall in the bank's share price since taking over, tried to win over the Swiss public on Monday by donning a cape to march in one of Switzerland's most festive traditions.

Wearing a two-cornered hat similar to Napoleon's and clutching flowers donated by women along the route, Franco-Ivorian Thiam, 53, paraded through rain-soaked Zurich to mark the city's annual spring jamboree.

The event is dubbed Sechselaeuten after the six o'clock bells and in celebration of the move to summer working hours.

The climax involves the public burning of a model snowman named the Boeoegg whose head is filled with explosives.

In Switzerland's own version of Groundhog Day, the custom is that the quicker the Boeoegg explodes, the better the summer.

Thiam attended as an honorary guest of Zunft zur Meisen, one of Zurich's guilds whose members typically parade in costumes linked to their history.

His Sechselaeuten cameo follows a tough few months after taking charge of Switzerland's second-biggest bank in July.

The smooth-talking former insurance executive was initially seen by many as a welcome break from his predecessor Brady Dougan, a U.S. investment banker who had fallen out of favor with the Swiss public towards the end of his tenure.

Dougan was criticized for his lack of German language skills and the amount of time he spent in New York rather than at the bank's Zurich headquarters. Dougan's attempt to join a previous parade was thwarted by ash cloud flight cancellations.

Some of the optimism surrounding Thiam has faded amid recent heavy losses, plans to cut 6,000 job and almost $1 billion in trading writedowns.

His blueprint to rebalance the business towards wealth management and away from investment banking has so far received a lukewarm response from the market.

Major investors have backed the strategy but there are concerns Thiam's targets are too optimistic and that Credit Suisse is looking to expand in Asia just as Chinese growth is slowing.

The bank also appears under-capitalized compared to rivals despite the 6 billion Swiss francs ($6.2 billion) it raised last year, analysts have said.

Credit Suisse has hired an external PR adviser to help with its Swiss media strategy. The bank will hope Thiam's Sechselaeuten march is a step in the right direction.

($1 = 0.9652 Swiss francs)

(Editing by David Evans)

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