Credit Suisse Publicity Law Probe Halted

by Robin Pilgrim, LawAndTax-News.com, London

21 March 2003

In a statement released yesterday, the Swiss stock Exchange (SWX) announced that it has halted an investigation into the Credt Suisse Group over a possible breach of Article 72 of the Listing Rules, which deals with ad-hoc publicity.

In an NZZ am Sonntag report which was published on November 10 2002, it was alleged that Credit Suisse had selectively passed information to analysts in the run-up to the publication of its third-quarter figures for 2002.

The newspaper claimed that several analysts had received tips from the Group which allowed them to adjust their profit forecasts with regard to taxes, a move which would have contravened the exchange's ad-hoc publicity regulations.

However, Credit Suisse argued that it had only contacted one analyst to draw his attention to an obvious error in the calculation of the tax item, and had referred exclusively to information already in the public domain.

The SWX investigation also came to this conclusion, and the exchange announced on Thursday that:

'These claims could not be substantiated with the information available to SWX, and the enquiries found no grounds for improper conduct on the part of the Credit Suisse Group. SWX has consequently halted proceedings.'

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