Credit Suisse Bank collapses nearly 20% on Swiss stock market

The bank’s action Credit Suisse It sank this Wednesday on the Swiss stock market, after its main Saudi shareholder declared that it will not support the entity by increasing its stake in the capital.

By 1040 GMT, the share of the second largest Swiss bank was down 19.7% at CHF1.7985, after hitting a record low of CHF1.7070 during the session.

The Saudi National Bank became the first shareholder of Credit Suisse During a capital increase in November launched to finance a strong restructuring of the entity.

Asked by Bloomberg TV whether the Saudi bank could invest more money, its president, Amar Al Judairy, clearly ruled out that option.

“The answer is absolutely no, for several increasingly simple reasons, which are regulatory and statutory”he declared.

The Saudis currently own 9.8% of the Swiss bank. “If we exceed 10%, a series of new rules come into force”he explained.

For his part, the president of Credit Suisse, Axel Lehmann, affirmed that the establishment he directs does not need government help.

“It’s not a topic” he said during a conference for the banking sector in Saudi Arabia.

“We have solid financial ratios, a solid balance sheet,” insisted.

If the measures of the US authorities and the guarantees of the European governments on the soundness of the banking system after the bankruptcy of the Californian bank Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) managed to stabilize the markets a bit on Tuesday, the situation continues to be fragile.

Credit Suisserocked by repeated scandals, suffered a net loss of nearly 7.3 billion Swiss francs (about $7.917 million) in 2022.

This is the worst result recorded by the Swiss bank since the financial crisis of 2008, when the entity registered a loss of more than 8,000 million francs.

Source: AFP