Credit Suisse CEO gets first profit hat-trick after tough two years

ZURICH: Credit Suisse, which faces calls from an activist investor to split up the bank to boost its share price, reported a near-sixfold year-on-year rise in third-quarter net income.

The earnings for the quarter to end-September marked the first time Switzerland’s second-biggest bank has posted three consecutive profitable quarters under chief executive Tidjane Thiam (pic), who took over in July 2015.

“While the outlook for global economic growth has continued to improve, uncertain geopolitical developments, central bank policies and the magnitude and timing of reforms in the US, as well as historically low levels of volatility, have impacted client activity levels, which remained muted,” Thiam said in a statement.

Credit Suisse is entering the second half of Thiam’s three-year plan to focus on wealth management over investment banking and settle legal cases.

After 6.56 billion francs in losses in 2016 and 2015, Credit Suisse said third-quarter net income attributable to shareholders was 244 million Swiss francs (US$244.2mil).

This lagged the forecast in a Reuters analyst poll for 264 million francs but was ahead of the bank’s own consensus report that saw net profit of 184 million francs.

Although earnings were up considerably, Credit Suisse still has a way to go to deliver the level of returns investors expect from a major bank.

By comparison, Swiss rival UBS last week posted 946 million francs in quarterly net profit. — Reuters