Credit Suisse chief executive Thomas Gottstein said that the bank has to “pay market” to attract the best people, despite a steep cut to its bonus pool as the Swiss lender reported a $1.7bn loss for 2021.

The bank needed to “find the right balance” between cutting the bonus pool and performance in key business lines after profits tumbled on the back of successive crises at Credit Suisse last year, Gottstein told journalists during its fourth-quarter earnings call.