The Saudi National Bank became Credit Suisse’s first shareholder during a November capital increase launched to finance a major restructuring of the entity.
Asked by Bloomberg TV whether the Saudi bank could invest more money, its president, Amar Al Judairy, clearly ruled out that option.
“The answer is absolutely no, for several increasingly simple reasons, which are regulatory and statutory,” he declared.
The Saudis currently own 9.8% of the Swiss bank. “If we exceed 10%, a series of new rules come into force”he explained.
For his part, the president of Credit Suisse, Axel Lehmann, affirmed that the establishment he directs does not need government help.
“It’s not an issue,” he said during a conference for the banking sector in Saudi Arabia.
“We have solid financial ratios, a solid balance sheet”he insisted.
If the measures of the US authorities and the guarantees of the European governments on the soundness of the banking system after the bankruptcy of the Californian bank Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) managed to stabilize the markets a bit on Tuesday, the situation continues to be fragile.
Rocked by repeated scandals, Credit Suisse posted a net loss of nearly 7.3 billion Swiss francs (about $7.917 million) in 2022.
Its about Swiss bank’s worst result since the 2008 financial crisiswhen the entity registered a loss of more than 8,000 million francs.
AFP information
