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Press Release

Update on External Auditor rotation

As announced in Credit Suisse Group’s 2017 Annual Report, in view of the EU rules with respect to mandatory auditor rotation for certain of our significant subsidiaries, the Group’s Audit Committee decided to pursue a rotation of our Group auditor no later than for the audit of the fiscal year ending December 31, 2021.

A tender of the Group audit mandate was conducted in the second half of 2018. All critical aspects of the tender, including the selection of audit firms to invite, the nature and extent of information sharing with the participating firms, as well as the evaluation criteria and process, were determined by the Audit Committee at the outset of the tender and subject to Audit Committee oversight during execution.

In advance of the tender, a review was undertaken by the Audit Committee to ensure impartiality among all individuals who would be involved in the process. As a precaution, one member of the Audit Committee was recused from participating in all aspects of the tender due to a potential conflict of interest.

A structured approach to evaluating the participating firms’ proposals was followed using a robust and objective set of assessment criteria that was shared with participating audit firms at the outset of the tendering process to provide transparency over how they would be evaluated.

At the conclusion of its evaluation, the Audit Committee recommended to the Board of Directors, and the Board of Directors approved, that PricewaterhouseCoopers be proposed as the new statutory auditor to the Annual General Meeting in April 2020. The appointment is proposed to be effective for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2020 and is subject to shareholder approval.