Credit Suisse, which is trying to recover from a series of resounding and costly scandals, recorded a net loss of 7.3 billion Swiss francs (about 7.4 billion euros) in 2022.
This is the biggest loss recorded by the bank since the financial crisis in 2008, when the second largest banking institution in Switzerland incurred a loss of more than eight billion francs. In the last quarter of 2022, the group’s losses amounted to about 1.4 billion francs, less than expected, especially due to real estate gains.
This year, he expects a “significant” pre-tax loss, given the costs of the restructuring process, which are supposed to amount to about 1.6 billion Swiss francs in 2023 and 1 billion Swiss francs in 2024, according to a statement published Thursday.
“It is clear that a weak fourth quarter concludes a bad year in 2022,” said Andreas Vendetti, an analyst at Vontobel, commenting on the stock market. “It is clear that it is one of the worst years in the history of the 167 years of Credit Suisse’s life.” “The transition to a new Credit Suisse bank will take time,” he added.
restructuring
The bank revealed in October a project for a massive restructuring process in order to refocus on its more stable activities, which are wealth management, asset management and the retail and business services branch of the Swiss market.
In the field of investment banking, it is supposed to combine its capital markets and advisory activities in an entity that will become independent and will be called “CS First Boston”, which is the name of the American investment bank that was acquired in 1990.
“We have a clear plan to create a new Credit Suisse bank and we intend to continue implementing our strategic transformation over three years,” Ulrich Korner, managing director of the banking group, said in the statement.
Still, the restructuring project was the subject of widespread speculation in October that alienated clients. In the last quarter alone, the amount of capital withdrawn amounted to 110.5 billion Swiss francs.
“We saw a reversal in January,” Chief Financial Officer Dixit Joshi said on a conference call, explaining that capital withdrawals took place mainly in October but slowed down in December.