Credit Suisse notches up another loss

Swiss bank still in the red after US tax reforms bite. Arnd Wiegmann /Reuters

Swiss banking major Credit Suisse reported Wednesday a sharp cut in its annual net loss despite US President Donald Trump's US tax reforms.

It reported a loss of 983 million Swiss francs (Dh3.86bn) in 2017, down from 2.7bn Swiss francs the previous year.

The second-largest Swiss bank had warned in December that the US tax reforms would hit its fourth-quarter results, AFP said.

In the last four months of the year, net losses were 2.1bn Swiss francs, slightly less than forecast by analysts interviewed by Swiss agency AWP who had predicted a figure of around 2.2bn.

Over the year as a whole, the bank exceeded its cost reduction target, bringing its operating cost base down to 17.7bn Swiss francs.

It was the second year of a three-year reorganisation of the bank's activities to focus on wealth management over merchant banking.

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The repositioning aims to reduce the volatility of the group's results, as merchant banking activities are more sensitive to market turmoil than asset management.

"2017 was a crucial year of delivery in our three-year restructuring plan, after 2016, which was a year of deep and radical reorganisation," chief executive Tidjane Thiam said.

"It was key for us to demonstrate that our new structure is effective and that the strategy formulated in 2015 is working."

The first six weeks of 2018 showed a “strong start” in the market-dependent businesses, with revenue gains of 10 per cent in its global markets unit and 15 per cent in Asia-Pacific markets, Credit Suisse said, according to Bloomberg. At the same time, the violent swings of the past weeks had a negative impact on its advisory business, the Zurich-based bank said, so that it’s adopting a “cautious short-term outlook” for now.

“Volatility creates opportunities,” said Mr Thiam. “We see a lot of activity in the secondary markets, but the primary market -- issuers -- are reluctant to issue when volatility is high.”