Credit Suisse says outflows have stabilized but not reversed

ZURICH (Reuters) – Credit Suisse said customer “outflows stabilized to much lower levels but had not yet reversed as of the date of this report” in its 2022 annual report published on Tuesday.

Battered by a string of scandals, the bank saw a sharp acceleration in customer withdrawals in the fourth quarter, with outflows of more than 110 billion Swiss francs ($120 billion), which made it breach some liquidity buffers.

The bank previously said the picture had been improving and that it was seeing money returning to the bank.

Scheduled for release last week, the bank‘s 2022 annual report had been delayed following a request from the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which had raised questions about the bank’s earlier financial statements.

Last week Credit Suisse said the SEC had called it regarding “certain open SEC comments about the technical assessment of previously disclosed revisions to the consolidated cash flow statements in the years ended December 31, 2020, and 2019, as well as related controls.”

On Monday the banks share price fell more than 14% to a record low as market turmoil brought on by the collapses of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank led European banking stocks to slide.

The cost of insuring against a Credit Suisse debt default also rose to a new all-time high at 466 bps, up 49 bps from Fridays close.

($1 = 0.9129 Swiss francs)

(Reporting by Noele Illien; Editing by Kim Coghill and Sonali Paul)