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The cash calls are why Mathers maintains very close ties to the Saudi Arabian Olayan Group, also a major Credit Suisse shareholder which pumped money into the bank in 2012 as well as 2008. 

Picking up fresh money was one of Thiam's first tasks when he began restoring Credit Suisse four years ago; thus, only natural that he would tap the talents and contacts of Mathers, the holdover CFO, to do so.

Carrying Out Orders

For Mathers to hold onto his job when Thiam set about disassembling Dougan's apparatus isn't just due to his cool under crisis and in-depth knowledge of the bank. The finance chief has also been a remarkably nimble.

Mathers didn't blink in 2015 when he went from reporting to Dougan, a nerdy, analytical workaholic investment banker, to Thiam, a much more impetuous personality who enjoys the limelight far more than his predecessor did. As a banker who worked with Mathers for years put it, the CFO doesn't question the boss' orders – he just carries them out. 

Managing Up

Little is known of the 20-year Credit Suisse veteran who lives with his family in a ritzy lakeside suburb of Zurich and shields his private life fiercely. He is known for managing upwards – CEO and board – extremely well, and for making huge demands of his own troops. 

To be sure, Mathers is also credited with bringing a more civil tone to Credit Suisse of late, even if, like Thiam, he has little patience for those whom he perceives to be of inferior intelligence. Thus, opinions are split on his leadership style.

Wings Clipped

As long as Mathers doesn't cast around for another job, perhaps where he has more creative freedom, he is indispensable enough to keep his job as long as he wants. He has already put up with having his wings clipped – only slightly – by Thiam. 

Before 2015, Mathers had acted as finance and operating chief in one, the same job he held previously at the investment bank. But Thiam installed a long-time associate, Pierre-Olivier Bouée, in the COO role.

Mathers ceded the technology and operations part of his job to Bouée. Thiam also installed an investor relations head of his own choosing: In 2016 he gave that job to another close associate, Adam Gishen.