Credit Suisse's chairman took a pass on a $1.6 million award and had his pay cut

• Credit Suisse chairman Axel Lehmann took a pass on a $1.6 million award and saw a pay cut.
• In its delayed annual report, the Swiss bank said it "identified material weaknesses" in its financial reporting.

Credit Suisse chairman Axel Lehmann gave up a $1.6 million award and took a pay cut, as the Swiss bank continues to face troubles after recording its poorest financial performance since 2008.

Lehmann, who started his position last January, waived his chair fee of 1.5 million Swiss francs ($1.6 million) that is typically awarded to board members on top of their salaries, according to Credit Suisse's compensation report.

The lender will also cut his salary for 2023-2024 to 3.8 million Swiss francs from an earlier projection of 4.5 million francs, according to the report. Lehmann's pay for 2022-2023 is 3 million francs.

The bank is also increasing the percentage of Lehmann's salary paid in shares to 50%, from 33% currently.

Credit Suisse published its annual report on Tuesday after delaying it for a few days because the Securities and Exchange Commission questioned some revisions the bank had made related to cash flow statements from three years ago.

While the Swiss banking giant didn't specify if the SEC's query had been addressed, it said in its annual report that it "identified material weaknesses" in its financial reporting.

"We have identified material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2022 and 2021," the annual report said.

"Management did not design and maintain an effective risk assessment process to identify and analyze the risk of material misstatements in its financial statements," it added.

The weaknesses in its internal controls is more bad news for the beleaguered Swiss bank whose US-listed shares were down 2.2% at $2.5 at last check Tuesday.

Lehmann had come under scrutiny by Swiss markets regulator FINMA over potentially misleading comments he made in December about huge outflows of clients funds from the bank coming to a halt.

The outflows came as the lender fended off viral concerns about its financial health and fears that it was facing the risk of a Lehman Brothers-style collapse.

But the Swiss watchdog dropped its probe last week and said it was informing the public of its decision because of how much the market was reacting to news about the possible investigation last month.

"After completing its investigations, it sees no sufficient grounds to open supervisory proceedings. However, it has set out clearly what it expects of the bank regarding its future communications," FINMA said in the March 10 statement.