* Shareholders support bank in contested votes
* CoCos and compensation criticised by investor group
* CEO Dougan says CoCo bonds raised at reasonable cost
(Adds details, CEO and shareholder group comments, voting)
By Martin de Sa'Pinto
ZURICH, April 29 (Reuters) - A robust speech from Credit Suisse chief Brady Dougan helped the bank overcome tough opposition to the issue of conditional capital at its shareholders meeting on Friday.
Despite stiff opposition from one shareholder group, more than 93 percent of shareholders backed the proposal to create conditional capital equivalent to up to 400 million shares to cover the contingent convertible bonds (CoCos) the bank issued in February to help it meet tough new rules.
Credit Suisse Chief Executive Brady Dougan had earlier told shareholders the issue of the CoCos had strengthened the bank's capital position at a low cost to the bank.
"Our issuance of contingent capital is a good example of how we have worked with the regulators to devise ways to make the system -- and your bank -- more secure," said Dougan, defending the move.
"In the course of just one week, we raised 70 percent of the high trigger capital we need to raise over the next nine years. And we were able to raise it at a reasonable cost," said Dougan, who opened his address to shareholders in German and French, as well as English.
The opposition to CoCos was spearheaded by Ethos, a group of more than 100 institutional investors promoting sustainable development, which said the bank wouldn't need to issue the bonds if it sold its investment bank's trading activities.
"The cumulative economic loss of the investment bank in the last seven years is an estimated 7 billion francs," Ethos executive director Dominique Biedermann told the shareholder meeting.
"The abandonment of the high risk trading business is the only efficient solution of the too big to fail problem in Switzerland," Biedermann said.
Ethos-affiliated investors hold only 0.1 percent of Credit Suisse share capital, but the body exerts sizeable influence among institutional shareholders.
Ethos also urged investors to vote against the 1.30 Swiss francs per share dividend proposed by the board, saying cancelling the dividend would conserve capital and help the bank meet tougher new capital requirement, and opposed the bank's remuneration report.
A large minority of shareholders abstained or voted against the remuneration report for the second year in succession, although fewer than in the previous year. The 74 percent who supported it was higher than at domestic rival UBS's Thursday AGM.
Dougan defended the bank's compensation policy.
"I recognize that this can be a very controversial topic, but having the right policies and structures in place is particularly important for a global bank, which is dependent on experienced and highly qualified people," Dougan said.
"Our goal is to reward our employees for performing in a way that creates sustainable value over time," he added, noting that 60 percent of 2010 bonuses were deferred, up from 40 percent a year earlier, and one of the highest deferral levels in banking.
Credit Suisse, which operates globally both in investment banking and wealth management, gained market share in the credit crisis while domestic rival UBS struggled with huge credit writedowns and an onerous tax evasion probe by U.S. authorities.
Credit Suisse shares traded 1.0 percent higher at 1233 GMT, outperforming a 0.3 percent rise in the Stoxx European banks index, while UBS was 0.2 percent higher. (Editing by Mike Nesbit)