Constance Wang, the woman listed as the Chief Operating Officer of embattled cryptocurrency exchange FTX, was previously employed by Credit Suisse as a ‘risk manager’.
Wang, who graduated from the National University of Singapore with a degree in Finance, worked for the global investment bank between 2016 and 2018.
Her roles included ‘risk and controls analyst’ and ‘private banking analyst’, until she left because she wasn’t enjoying compliance training.
“I was in Credit Suisse for two years doing a compliance management training program which I didn’t really like and that’s why I moved away from it,” Wang said in an interview earlier this year.
“I started joining crypto in 2018 and back then I was in Singapore doing institutional sales and I met Sam (Bankman-Fried) … and we just clicked immediately.
“So I moved to Hong Kong from Singapore in early 2019 to work on FTX together with Sam and so far it has been fantastic.”
Fast forward to now, and Wang is linked to one of the largest collapses in the short history of cryptocurrencies, with rumours about FTX’s financial health sparking US$6B of withdrawals within only three days.
Asia Markets is not suggesting Constance Wang is involved in any wrongdoing or even that she contributed to company’s current predicament.
It’s been reported that the FTX CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried, has told his employees that he’s “sorry” and that he “f***d up”.
The world’s leading crypto exchange, Binance, initially indicated it might buy-out FTX, but has since pulled out.
Credit Suisse facing own problems
The revelations come as Wang’s former employer, Credit Suisse, and other Swiss banks face serious questions about their future.
The Swiss National Bank lost US$142.369 billion in the first nine months of 2022, equivalent to around 17 per cent of Switzerland’s entire GDP.
At the beginning of the year, Switzerland’s top stock positions were dominated by U.S. tech stocks, one of the poorest performing stock market sectors of 2022.
Was FTX was trying to grow too quickly?
The crypocurrency world is now trying to work out exactly what went so wrong for what had appeared to be a safe and successful exchange, although some suggest the company was trying to do too much too soon.
Wang has said in previous interviews that FTX was doing everything it could to sign more people up to the platform.
“We are trying to expand our user base globally,” she said.
“This includes working on a local currency off-ramps in different regions and countries and forming a better user experience by improving our product flow … and doing more marketing.”
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