Credit Suisse To Cut Further 1,250 Jobs

by Philip Morton, Investors Offshore.com

26 February 2003

Credit Suisse, Switzerland's second largest bank has just announced a fesh batch of job cuts, according to reports in the national and international media.

In stark contrast to its rival, UBS, which last week reported net profits for 2002 of SFr3.535 billion, Credit Suisse recently announced losses of SFr3.3 billion.

Following the release of the figures, the group explained that the poor results were influenced by 'continuing financial market weakness', coupled with a number of exceptional items.

According to the Swissinfo news service, these included: 'pre-tax charges of around SFr1 billion for legal settlements in the United States relating to research analyst independence, certain IPO practices, Enron and other related litigation.'

Speaking to the national news provider, joint Credit Suisse CEO, Oswald Grubel announced that:

'We are actively pursuing initiatives to reduce costs and withdraw from markets and businesses with unsatisfactory results in order to position us for a return to profitability in 2003.'

However, for many observers, it is not Credit Suisse's traditional underperformers which are the worry, but its private banking arm, which has always been the group's strongest business.

According to a Financial Times report published on Tuesday, Credit Suisse Private Banking was, until recently, outperforming UBS. However the business daily revealed that: 'CSPB's net new money inflows in the fourth quarter fell for the third quarter in a row, and totalled just SFr0.5 billion'.

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