Credit Suisse: setting up 'reserve' in view of crisis

(CercleFinance.com) - Credit Suisse has built a reserve of over 1 billion Swiss francs in the first quarter to reflect the challenging economic environment and the collapse of oil prices, the Swiss bank said on Thursday.


The reserve build has been calculated to reflect credit losses on financial assets and provisions for off-balance sheet credit exposures, the group added in a statement.

The money manager warned, however, that the impact of the Covid-19 crisis is "still difficult" to assess and that it may need to book further reserves and impairments in the coming quarters.

This could be particularly the case for its corporate bank business and other loans, outside Switzerland, as well as for its investments in its asset management division, it noted.

In the first quarter, the bank's net profit rose by 1.5% to 1.3 billion Swiss francs, helped by a strong contribution from its private banking franchises, and the gain from the InvestLab divestment.

Its quarterly net revenues rose by 7% to 5.8 billion francs, it added.

Credit Suisse shares were up 1.2% on Thursday, outperforming a 0.5% fall in Switzerland's SMI index.

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