Credit Suisse Plans Deeper Cost Cuts After Third Quarter Earnings Miss

Credit Suisse has missed analysts' estimates with a reported fall in third quarter net profit, and plans to implement fresh cost cuts worth a further 1bn Swiss francs over the next three years.

Switzerland's second-biggest bank said net profit fell 63 percent year-on-year, dropping to 254m Swiss francs - missing analysts' forecasts of 370m Swiss francs.

A large portion of the reduction was related to a 1.05bn Swiss franc charge, which is linked to the value of the bank's own debt.

Accounting rules demand that banks set aside a certain amount of cash to reflect the theoretical cost of purchasing their own debt in the capital markets. As the debt improves in value, the charge increases and lowers the bank's bottom line.

Credit Suisse shares rose by around 0.5 percent during early trading in Zurich to change hands at 21.44 Swiss francs each. The shares have risen more than 33 percent since hitting a five-year low of 16.10 Swiss francs in August.

Savings

Credit Suisse has already announced cost cuts worth 3bn Swiss francs, making sweeping redundancies and selling off riskier assets, in a bid to meet the legal capital requirements imposed by Basel III.

Last year the Swiss investment bank announced 3,500 job cuts, as part of a global efficiency programme seeking to cull 7 percent of staff.

By the end of the first quarter this year, Credit Suisse said it had cut 2000 jobs, which means there are 1500 positions still to be axed, although the bank has not officially set a target as to when these cuts will be made.

In July this year, Credit Suisse said it aims to lower costs at the investment bank by an additional 550 million Swiss francs and by about 450 million Swiss francs at the private bank by the end of next year.

While the bank said that about half of those savings will come from more efficient use of shared services such as information technology, reports in the same month indicated that Credit Suisse plans to axe one third of senior employees in its European investment banking department.

In a statement on the Credit Suisse website following its latest financial results, CEO Brady Dougan said the bank has "significantly cut costs and improved efficiencies, while also reducing risks and strengthening its capital requirements."

Dougan added: "We expect to deliver savings in excess of the Sfr3bn previously announced for full year 2013 and we are committed to deliver additional cost savings in subsequent years. The implementation of the capital actions we announced in July 2012 is well underway.

"By the end of the third quarter, our Look-through Swiss Core Capital ratio stood at 8.2 percent and we are confident that, through the completion of the capital measures we announced and the further risk reduction in Investment Banking, we will be at around 9.3 percent on a pro-forma basis by end-2012 and are on track to achieve our target and the Swiss end-2018 requirement of 10 percent by mid-2013."