Meltdown, Duncan Mavin
Meltdown, Duncan Mavin
List: $19.99 | Sale: $13.99
Club: $9.99

Meltdown
Greed, Scandal, and the Collapse of Credit Suisse

Author: Duncan Mavin

Narrator: Charles Armstrong

Unabridged: 8 hr 3 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Ascent Audio

Published: 03/04/2025


Synopsis

The incredible story of a once-venerable Swiss bank that produced a litany of financial scandals and whose collapse reveals the amorality at the heart of the global banking system.

Credit Suisse was a 166-year-old bastion of global banking. But a veneer of high-class service disguised a darker, much dirtier reality. From its sterile Zurich headquarters, Credit Suisse banked dictators and drug dealers, hid stolen Nazi gold, and helped corrupt bankers fleece the firm's own clients of billions of dollars. Its top executives oversaw a global operation that laundered money for autocrats; they hired spies to track one another through the cobbled streets of the Swiss financial capital; and they helped clients hide their money from the world's tax authorities. This is the story of a tawdry total meltdown of one of the biggest, most influential, and most scandal-ridden banks on the planet.

Duncan Mavin is uniquely sourced to tell the story of Credit Suisse's scandal-ridden demise, with dozens of inside-the-room contacts. The bank's collapse was the biggest shock to the financial system since the Financial Crisis of 2008, and sparked a media frenzy. But only Duncan has had access to key sources within the bank's executive suite—including former CEOs—and the inner circle that brings this critical, rollicking story to life.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Bobo_helix on January 17, 2025

This book is a straightforward chronicle of all the major events that have occurred at credit suites over the past 30 years. Scandals, fines and changes in senior management, one after another, in a very plain style. While it serves as a good reminder of what actually happened, it lacks deep analysi......more

Goodreads review by Ignacio on April 18, 2025

It reads like a newspaper. All the major events that led to the downfall of CS are described here, however, it lacks an insightful analysis of the “whys” behind the scandals.......more

Goodreads review by Venky on March 31, 2025

In March 2023, Credit Suisse was taken over by its archival UBS, thereby bringing the curtains down on a kaleidoscopic saga of greed, ambition, and hubris. Repeatedly racked by scandals and consistently embroiled in sleazy business deals, the once storied and venerable behemoth of the banking and fi......more

Goodreads review by Danielle on November 27, 2024

Overall a very good book giving a good overview on Credit Suisse spanning its long history and zoomed in more to recent few decades and past few years of mishaps and scandals. Many of the incidents covered had been published and discussed in greater details in the industry, reading a summarised vers......more

Goodreads review by Alex on December 02, 2024

Duncan Mavin's 'Meltdown' takes the reader through the history of Credit Suisse, from humble beginnings to its catastrophic downfall. Mavin neatly links together the series of scandals to form one overarching narrative. This makes for a satisfying read but the book lacks sufficient evidence for this......more