With a name like Credit Suisse, a bank should be the epitome of stability. But Thursday's ousting of Lukas Mühlemann, the chairman and chief executive, shows it to be the very opposite.

Mr Mühlemann is paying the price for a series of strategic decisions that backfired. The most important were the SFr14.3bn acquisition of Winterthur, the insurance group, in 1997 and the $11.5bn purchase of Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette, the investment bank, at the top of the market in 2000. He will be replaced by Walter Kielholz, chief executive of Swiss Re, and already Credit Suisse's vice- chairman.