Credit Suisse Reports Huge Loss

February 11, 2009 by Pegagus Pendrean

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Credit Suisse Yesterday in our article entitled “UBS Makes Record Loss”we reported that UBS, Switzerland’s largest bank, had announced a 8.1 billion Swiss franc ($7 billion) net loss in the fourth quarter and a loss of 19.7 billion Swiss francs for 2008.

Credit Suisse Reports Huge Loss -Today, it’s the turn of Credit Suisse, Switzerland’s second-largest bank after UBS, which reported a 4th Quarter net loss of SFr6 billion ($5.2 billion) – its worst ever result – and a full-year loss of SFr8.2 billion ($7.09 billion).

The results are far worse than the 3.72-billion-franc loss analysts had excepted. Analysts had been forecasting a full-year net loss of around SFr6 billion and a loss of SFr4 billion for the fourth quarter. A year earlier Credit Suisse (nyse: CS – news – people ) had reported a full-year net profit of 7.8 billion francs.

Chief executive Brady W. Dougan blamed the result on a poor trading performance and restructuring charges and said in a statement today that the results were disappointing but noted that the Zurich-based bank had had a profitable start to 2009.

“While our full-year results are clearly disappointing, we entered 2009 with a very strong capital position, a robust business model, a clear strategy and well-positioned businesses,” commented CEO Brady Dougan.

Unlike its rival UBS, Credit Suisse hasn’t accepted any aid from the Swiss government, and CEO Brady Dougan told analysts Wednesday that it has remained a net provider of liquidity to the market throughout the credit crisis.

Credit Suisse shares dropped 6.3% in early Swiss trading. Most other European banking stocks also declined after Wall Street reacted negatively on Tuesday to the U.S. bank bailout plan.