Scandal ridden Credit Suisse sees £1.6bn loss in latest quarter
Credit Suisse’s latest financial results were dragged by legal woes and a slowdown at the bank’s investment and wealth management arms.
The bank revealed that pre-tax income had swung to a loss of CHF 1.58bn (£1.2bn) from gains of CHF 1bn in the previous quarter, while losses after tax sunk to CHF 2bn.
The results mark the end of a troubled year for the banking giant which was hit hard by the collapse of £7.3bn of supply chain finance funds linked to insolvent British finance firm Greensill and saw a £4bn trading loss from the implosion of investment fund Archegos.
“2021 was a very challenging year for Credit Suisse. Our reported financial results were negatively impacted by the Archegos matter, the impairment of goodwill relating to the Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette (DLJ) acquisition in 2000 and litigation provisions, as we look to proactively resolve legacy issues,” said chief executive Thomas Gottstein in a statement.
“During the last three quarters of the year, we ran the bank with a constrained risk appetite across all divisions as we took decisive actions to strengthen our overall risk and controls foundation and continued our remediation efforts, including on the Supply Chain Finance Funds matter, where our priority is to return cash to investors,” he continued.
For the full year, net income attributable to shareholders plummeted to a CHF 1.57bn franc loss from profits of CHF 2.7bn for 2020.
Failing to shake off the turbulence of 2021, Credit Suisse began 2022 with the sudden departure of its chairman, who served in the role for just nine months, and is facing a criminal trial over claims it allowed an alleged Bulgarian cocaine gang to launder millions of euros.
Read more: Credit Suisse accused of helping cocaine traffickers launder millions of euros