Trading places

1 November 2018 By Christopher Thompson Follow @CGAThompson

A third-quarter loss in fixed income and equities meant a 2 pct revenue dip at the Swiss bank. Boss Tidjane Thiam has other levers, though. So long as he keeps controlling costs, lower losses from Credit Suisse’s non-core unit should mean he can hit a 10 pct 2019 return target.

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Credit Suisse on Nov. 1 reported a 68 percent year-on-year rise in third-quarter pre-tax profit to 671 million Swiss francs. Revenue fell by 2 percent to 4.9 billion Swiss francs.

The lender’s wealth management businesses attracted 10.3 billion Swiss francs in net new client assets during the quarter, bringing assets under management to 785 billion Swiss francs.

Quarterly pre-tax profit at Credit Suisse’s trading division, Global Markets, fell to a 96 million Swiss franc loss, compared to a 71 million Swiss franc pre-tax profit last year, on revenue that declined by 17 percent year-on-year.

The Zurich-based bank’s common equity Tier 1 capital ratio, assuming full implementation of Basel rules, was 12.9 percent, compared to 12.8 percent three months earlier. On the same basis its leverage ratio was 4 percent compared to 3.9 percent at the end of the second quarter.

The bank made an annualised return on tangible equity of 4.5 percent, compared to 2.5 percent in the comparable quarter of 2017. That rose to 6.3 percent for the first nine months of the year.

Credit Suisse shares fell 4 percent to 12.7 Swiss francs by 0836 GMT on Nov. 1.

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