Credit Suisse stock sliding

1 year ago 24

Credit Suisse shares resumed their decline on Friday, erasing the previous session’s gains, as investor concerns continue rising despite the news of a $54 billion lifeline.

The price of stock in Switzerland’s second-largest bank had dropped by more than 10% as of 13:10 GMT, following two days of sharp swings, which saw its shares jump 20% on Thursday after a nearly 25% plunge on Wednesday.

The slide on Wednesday came after the bank’s biggest investor, the Saudi National Bank (SNB), said it would not be able to provide further financial assistance due to regulatory and statutory issues. The market turmoil was triggered by last week’s collapse of US tech lenders.

On Thursday, Credit Suisse announced it would borrow up to 50 billion Swiss francs ($53.8 billion) from the country's central bank, the Swiss National Bank, to reassure investors it had enough money to stay afloat. In addition to the loan, Credit Suisse said it repurchased billions of dollars of its own debt to manage the liabilities and interest-payment expenses. The offer covers $2.5 billion of US dollar bonds and €500 million ($529 million) of euro bonds.

“Whether depositors are sufficiently reassured to stem outflows over the next few days is a key question, in our view,” head of investment strategy for RBC Wealth Management, Frederique Carrier, told Reuters.

“While markets are relieved that the Swiss central bank stepped in, sentiment is bound to remain very fragile, particularly as investors will likely worry about the eventual economic impact of aggressive monetary policy tightening by the European Central Bank (ECB),” she added.

The Zurich-based Credit Suisse has been battling lately to recover from a string of scandals and losses that have shaken the confidence of investors and clients. Customer outflows in the fourth quarter totaled over 110 billion Swiss francs.

Executives at major banks in Switzerland have warned that the country’s decision to support Ukraine-related sanctions against Russia is having a negative impact on their business, the Financial Times reported last week.

The unnamed banking officials told the outlet that rich clientele from China are seriously worried about depositing their money in Swiss banks, after Bern ditched its policy of neutrality by freezing billions in Russian assets as part of sanctions.

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