GENEVA: Credit Suisse’s battered shares lost more than a quarter of their value on Wednesday, hitting an all-time low after its largest shareholder, the Saudi National Bank – told outlets he would not inject any more money into the troubled Swiss bank.
The Credit Suisse share price turmoil caused an automatic pause in trading of the bank’s shares on the Swiss market and sent shares of other European banks tumbling by double-digits. This has fueled fresh fears about the health of financial institutions in the wake of the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank in the US and concerns for medium-sized lenders.
Credit Suisse shares fell more than 27% to around 1.6 Swiss francs in mid-afternoon trading on the SIX exchange on Wednesday. It is down more than 85% compared to February 2021.
The Swiss stock market says the decline Credit Suisse shares activated a temporary and automatic pause.
Other European banks were taking a hit on concerns about the sector: France’s Societe Generale SA fell 12%, France’s BNP Paribas was down more than 10%, Germany’s Deutsche Bank was down 8% and Britain’s Barclays Bank fell nearly 8%. The shares of the two French banks were briefly suspended.
The fall came after Ammar Al Khudairy, chairman of Credit Suisse’s key shareholder Saudi National Bank, told Bloomberg and Reuters he had ruled out further investment in the Swiss bank to avoid regulations that come into effect when it has a larger stake. at 10%.
Saudi National Bank invested about 1.5 billion Swiss francs ($1.5 billion) to acquire a stake of just under 10%, while Credit Suisse tried to raise money from investors last year and roll out a new strategy to overcome a variety of problems.
These include bad bets on hedge funds, repeated changes in its top management and an espionage scandal involving Zurich rival UBS.
Credit Suisse released its 2022 annual report on Tuesday indicating that executives had identified “substantial weaknesses” in the bank’s internal control over financial reporting since late last year. This has fueled fresh doubts about the bank’s ability to weather the recent storm.
The Credit Suisse share price turmoil caused an automatic pause in trading of the bank’s shares on the Swiss market and sent shares of other European banks tumbling by double-digits. This has fueled fresh fears about the health of financial institutions in the wake of the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank in the US and concerns for medium-sized lenders.
Credit Suisse shares fell more than 27% to around 1.6 Swiss francs in mid-afternoon trading on the SIX exchange on Wednesday. It is down more than 85% compared to February 2021.
The Swiss stock market says the decline Credit Suisse shares activated a temporary and automatic pause.
Other European banks were taking a hit on concerns about the sector: France’s Societe Generale SA fell 12%, France’s BNP Paribas was down more than 10%, Germany’s Deutsche Bank was down 8% and Britain’s Barclays Bank fell nearly 8%. The shares of the two French banks were briefly suspended.
The fall came after Ammar Al Khudairy, chairman of Credit Suisse’s key shareholder Saudi National Bank, told Bloomberg and Reuters he had ruled out further investment in the Swiss bank to avoid regulations that come into effect when it has a larger stake. at 10%.
Saudi National Bank invested about 1.5 billion Swiss francs ($1.5 billion) to acquire a stake of just under 10%, while Credit Suisse tried to raise money from investors last year and roll out a new strategy to overcome a variety of problems.
These include bad bets on hedge funds, repeated changes in its top management and an espionage scandal involving Zurich rival UBS.
Credit Suisse released its 2022 annual report on Tuesday indicating that executives had identified “substantial weaknesses” in the bank’s internal control over financial reporting since late last year. This has fueled fresh doubts about the bank’s ability to weather the recent storm.
