On Tuesday morning, Credit Suisse released what is now called a trading update, ahead of fourth-quarter 2021 results due on February 10.
Euromoney remembers when these unscheduled partial disclosures were called profit warnings and usually prepared the stock market for losses.
To be fair, the bank says it won’t report a loss for the fourth quarter. It will break even.
This comes after SFr500 million of new litigation provisions, partly off-set by a SFr225 million gain on real-estate sales. An impairment charge had already been announced and there will also be restructuring costs related to the strategic plan unveiled with some fanfare in November at the third-quarter results by then-chairman António Horta-Osório.
His departure, following a board investigation into breaches of Covid quarantine rules, came nine days ago.
The big worry for investors from the trading update surrounds the strategic plan, much more than yet more litigation reserves. The argument presented in November was that if investors would just strip out those so-called legacy costs, they should see the underlying businesses performing well.
The update suggests they are not performing so well after all.
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