Our Responsibility as a Global Bank

Brady W. Dougan, Chief Executive Officer (left) Walter B. Kielholz, Chairman of the Board of Directors

Credit Suisse has been an innovative and successful provider of financial services for over 150 years. As a global bank, we play a key role in the economy and society by managing assets and global capital flows, assessing and prudently addressing risks and providing governments, companies and private individuals with access to capital. We believe that our responsibility toward the environment and society is a key factor driving our long-term success.

Our approach to Corporate Citizenship

Our greatest duty toward society is to ensure that we operate successfully and profitably. It is only by performing our core business activities effectively, while acting in the best interests of clients and shareholders and meeting the highest industry standards, that we can satisfy the needs of all our stakeholders. As a financial institution, we assign considerable importance to the creation of innovative products and services and the efficient use of resources. This approach is based on our Code of Conduct, which underpins our corporate culture and internal value system. In this way, we create sustained added value for our organization and make an important contribution to the efficient functioning of the economy, to public finances and to society as a whole. Only a successful company can be a reliable employer, offer a favorable working environment and attract the best talent. We therefore actively promote cultural diversity and equal opportunities in the workplace and seek to foster an international approach that is also beneficial to our clients. Importantly, our business success also provides us with the necessary resources to support the communities in which we operate and to finance charitable projects and initiatives around the world.

Caring for the environment

In times of significant environmental and social challenges, it is vital for Credit Suisse to consider all the different aspects of its activities and their implications. The very nature of our business means that we must sometimes address controversial issues and analyze the impacts of environmentally sensitive transactions, drawing on our expertise in the responsible evaluation and management of risk. We recognize that certain decisions we take may be viewed differently by individual stakeholders. Nevertheless, we consistently strive to comply with the highest international standards in terms of ethics, integrity and responsible conduct, and we apply a comprehensive internal audit process to ensure that these standards are implemented in practice. Reflecting our marketleading approach to corporate responsibility, Credit Suisse was one of the first companies to sign up to the Equator Principles and the United Nations Global Compact and, in 1997, became the first bank worldwide to achieve ISO 14001 certification for its environmental management system.

We continually develop structured products with a focus on environmental and social themes and use our financial expertise to create innovative offerings in areas such as alternative energies and carbon emissions trading. At the same time, we remain committed to supporting microfinance. An active dialog also plays a central role at Credit Suisse. Only by sharing our experience and insights with all our stakeholders in a committed and objective manner can we identify their exact needs and create a basis for mutual trust.

"Innovate – Educate – Participate"

We believe that education plays an essential role in improving the lives of the world’s poorest people. To strengthen the impact of our philanthropic activities in this and other areas, we combined our regional charitable foundations in 2007 and created the Credit Suisse Foundation. As well as conducting a large number of regional projects to benefit local communities, we have launched four global initiatives under the motto "Innovate – Educate – Participate":

• Schooling for 45,000 students: We will be financing places in schools for more than 45,000 students in developing countries and emerging market economies – one for every employee at Credit Suisse.
• Microfinance training: We are supporting new initiatives to train employees in microfinance institutions.
• Caring for the climate: In 2006, Credit Suisse became the first major Swiss company to achieve greenhouse gas neutrality in Switzerland. We are now striving to become carbon-neutral globally by 2009.
• Partnership with the Red Cross: We are forming a strategic partnership with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and will continue to extend our cooperation with national Red Cross societies.

Our webpages as well as our annual report on Corporate Citizenship provide an insight into the wide-ranging issues and challenges we face today as a global financial services provider, and it looks at the different ways in which we assume our environmental and social responsibilities.

Walter B. Kielholz and Brady W. Dougan