NEW YORK Aug 29 (Reuters) - Nineteen former Credit

Suisse executives and directors reached a $115 million

settlement of shareholder claims that their poor risk management

caused significant losses in 2020 and 2021, including from

Archegos Capital Management, heralding the bank's demise.

A preliminary settlement of the shareholder derivative

lawsuit was approved on Thursday by Justice Andrea Masley of a

New York state court in Manhattan.

Insurers for the defendants would pay the settlement funds,

after deducting legal fees, to Swiss bank UBS, which

took over Credit Suisse in 2023 in a government-arranged rescue.

The defendants included former Credit Suisse Chairman Urs

Rohner. All denied wrongdoing in agreeing to settle.

Lawyers for Rohner and 12 other defendants did not

immediately respond to requests for comment on Friday.

Shareholders said the defendants' negligence violated Swiss

law, while leaving Credit Suisse vulnerable as counterparties

including Archegos, Greensill Capital Management and Malachite

Capital Management defaulted.

The shareholders are led by the Employees Retirement System

for the City of Providence, Rhode Island. Their lawyers plan to

seek up to 30% of the settlement fund for legal fees, plus up to

$3.2 million for expenses.

Last month, a federal judge in Manhattan said UBS must face

two lawsuits by former Credit Suisse shareholders and

bondholders who said Credit Suisse defrauded them with false and

misleading statements about its financial condition.

The same judge dismissed a separate shareholder lawsuit in

February 2024 against 29 former Credit Suisse officials and the

auditor KPMG, blaming two decades of "continuous mismanagement"

for Credit Suisse's collapse.

Archegos, a family office that once managed $36 billion,

imploded in March 2021 when founder Bill Hwang could not meet

margin calls on bank loans he obtained to make large bets on

media and technology stocks.

Hwang is appealing his July 2024 fraud conviction and

18-year prison sentence.

The case is Employees Retirement System for the City of

Providence v Rohner et al, New York State Supreme Court, New

York County, No. 651657/2022.