Shares in Credit Suisse rose more than 20% after the announcement of a loan from the Swiss National Bank to calm markets after suffering the worst session in their history a day earlier.

At 11:23 GMT, the title was up 22.30% on the Zurich bourse at 2.07 Swiss francs, after hitting a record low of 1.55 francs on Wednesday, when the stock ended the day with a 24-hour decline. .24%

Credit Suisse announced early Thursday morning European time that it will lend up to 50 billion Swiss francs ($53.7 billion) from the central bank.

At the same time, the bank announced in a press release a series of debt buyout operations for around 3 billion Swiss francs.

“These steps are a decisive step to strengthen Credit Suisse as we continue our strategic transformation to deliver value to our clients and other stakeholders,” the bank’s chief executive Ulrich Koerner was quoted as saying in the statement.

After a stunning silence since the beginning of the week, the Swiss central bank and the Swiss financial supervisor finally came to CS’s defense on Wednesday.

“Credit Suisse meets the capital and liquidity requirements imposed on systemically important banks,” the Swiss National Bank (SNB, central) and the Financial Market Supervisory Authority (Finma) said in a joint statement.

“In case of need, BNS will make liquidity available to Credit Suisse,” the institutions added.

The collapse of the SVB bank

Credit Suisse’s collapse comes after the bankruptcy of California-based Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) amid a wave of massive withdrawals from its clients that have left the establishment struggling to bail itself out.

“More and more investors seem to be looking at CS as the next most likely domino” to fall, said Neil Wilson, an analyst at Finalt.

But if Credit Suisse has to deal with “existential problems”, in his view it is a different kind of difficulty for the banking sector. “It really is too big to fail,” he said.

Unlike SVB, the Swiss establishment is one of thirty international banks deemed too important to fail, which also imposes stricter regulations to withstand severe shocks.

Concerns extend beyond Switzerland, with the US Treasury Department saying it is “monitoring the situation and in contact with international counterparts”.