Credit Suisse

Credit Suisse, under pressure of the U.S. judiciary in the case of Dan Horsky, a former MBA-lecturer in Bern, has frozen several dozen accounts as it attempts to verify whether the assets have been taxed correctly, after the firm pledged to come clean about secret assets, according to a person familiar with the matter, Bloomberg reported.

The bank wants to show that any hidden accounts were a lapse in controls and not a criminal act, another person familiar with the matter said.

UBS and Credit Suisse send clear signals: cutting costs is the first step, possibly within the year.

Q3 results showed, in fact, that the two banks are still spending too much. UBS saw its revenue shrink losing revenue from the wealthy customers and restless showing on the face of trading. Income, in practice, have fallen faster than the process of reducing the part of the bank charges. Instead Credit Suisse had almost reached the target in 2016, but in the third quarter expenses were up 2%.

Credit Suisse posted a surprise profit of 41 million Swiss franc, while the market consensus was expecting a loss of 150 million, yet the stock opened 3% lower at the open and continued falling throughout the session.

Credit Suisse has reported an unexpected net profit of 41 million Swiss francs ($42.2m) for the third quarter. Profit fell 95% from 779 million Swiss francs in the same quarter last year, but the company beat analysts’ forecasts who expected 150 million francs loss.

It is the second consecutive quarter in which Credit Suisse has surprised the market with a profit after a rocky start to chief executive Tidjane Thiam’s turnaround plan for the bank.
The bank also said its core tier 1 common equity – a measure of the amount of capital it has set aside to absorb business and market losses – rose to 12% in Q3 from 11.8% in the previous three month period.

Credit Suisse is ready to write a €100 million check to the Italian Revenue Agency to close the tax dispute with Italy, as Reuters reported by a source with knowledge of the dossier. The bank, through a spokesman, answered with a "no comment". The Swiss banking group has been at the center of an investigation conducted by the prosecutor Gaetano Ruta, of Milan prosecutors, for violation of the Law 231/2001 on the liability of companies for crimes committed by their employees, and also for tax fraud, money laundering, obstacle to the supervisory authority and illegal.

Credit Suisse faced challenges in the third quarter, as Chief Executive Tidjane Thiam underlined in the last weeks, while the Zurich-based bank planned to axe thousands of jobs within the end of this year.

Credit Suisse expects to shed some 1,200 jobs by the end of this year-which come on top of 4,800 job cuts already; CEO swiss bank intends to de-emphasize its investment banking operations while bolstering wealth management businesses in Asia and Switzerland. The bank will report third-quarter results on November 3.

Credit Suisse was fined $90 million by SEC, admitting wrongdoing after an investigation by U.S. regulators found the bank misrepresented how it determined a performance metric in its wealth management business to investors.
Former Credit Suisse executive Rolf Bogli, who didn’t admit or deny the findings, also agreed to settle and pay US$80,000 for his role in the violations.

Women are rare at top levels in Switzerland, with board level representation “closer to that seen in much less-developed nations”, according to a report by Credit Suisse.

The research “The CS Gender 3000” titled “The Reward for Change” showed that companies that have at least three women on the board have three times higher market capitalization compared to those who only have one female representative.

“With regards to business performance, we find clear evidence that a higher participation of women in decision-making roles continue to generate higher returns on equity, while running more conservative balance sheets,” said Urs Rohner Chairman of Credit Suisse and board member Iris Bohnet in the report.