DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ StanChart profit swells on soaring global interest rates
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Standard Chartered PLC (StanChart) on Wednesday said first-quarter pretax profit jumped 21%, beating expectations, as rising interest rates buoyed cash management income and retail product sales for the emerging markets-focused lender. The earnings update showed how rising central bank rates have boosted revenue, as StanChart charged borrowers more interest while not passing all of the increase to depositors. StanChart, which earns most of its revenue in Asia, said January-March statutory pretax profit reached $1.81 billion. The bank said income in its corporate cash management business tripled due to "strong pricing discipline and passthrough rate management". Retail banking income rose 53%, propelled by deposit income which also tripled to $771 million.

☆ Credit Suisse Details Painful Final Days Before Rescue
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( Margot Patrick | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Photo: Hannah McKay/ReutersCredit Suisse Group AG gave a glimpse of its chaotic final weeks before a rescue last month by UBS Group AG in a first-quarter earnings report that showed revenue diving and customers rushing to pull deposits. The Swiss bank lost more than $2 billion from its businesses in the first quarter, but posted a large net profit because of the benefit of writing off $17 billion in bonds. Customers withdrew around $75 billion in deposits, in a run that the bank says has moderated since the UBS deal announcement on March 19. Revenue fell across its investment-banking and wealth-management arms and its domestic bank.

☆ Credit Suisse Investors Challenge Switzerland’s $17 Billion Bond Write-Down
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( Alexander Saeedy | Margot Patrick | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Credit Suisse Group AG bondholders have launched a legal challenge in Switzerland against regulators’ decision to write down $17 billion in securities as part of UBS Group AG’s rescue of the troubled bank last month. Bondholders holding about 4.5 billion Swiss francs ($5 billion) of Credit Suisse’s canceled debt want the decision to write down their bonds revoked or amended, according to an outline of their appeal made in a Swiss administrative court and reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. The bondholders are alleging the total write-down was disproportionately punitive to them and violated their property rights, according to the summary of the legal filing.

☆ Credit Suisse bondholders sue Swiss regulator over $17 bln bond wipeout -FT
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

April 21 (Reuters) - Credit Suisse Group AG (CSGN.S) bondholders, representing $4.5 billion of the $17 billion of wiped-out Additional Tier 1 bonds of the company, have filed a lawsuit against Switzerland's banking regulator, the Financial Times reported on Friday. The complaint says the regulator, Finma, acted unconstitutionally when it ordered Credit Suisse to cancel the AT1 debt, the FT report said. This move by the Swiss regulator in mid-March angered bondholders who thought they would be better protected than shareholders in a rescue deal with UBS (UBSG.S) earlier in the month. The lawsuit was filed by the law firm Quinn Emanuel in the city of St. Gallen in eastern Switzerland on Wednesday, FT said. The bondholder group holds a "significant" percentage of the total notional value of the bonds, Quinn Emanuel said earlier this month when it was hired by the bondholders group.

[1/2] A view shows the logo of Credit Suisse on a building near the Hallenstadion where Credit Suisse Annual General Meeting took place, two weeks after being bought by rival UBS in a government-brokered rescue, in Zurich, Switzerland, April 4, 2023. UBS and Credit Suisse declined to comment. What's more, UBS doesn't tend to lend to potential clients as Credit Suisse has often done, a move that can persuade some customers. "There are clearly parts of Credit Suisse that have had a bad culture," UBS Chairman Colm Kelleher told reporters on March 29. UBS ranked 14th advising on mergers globally last year, behind 11th placed Credit Suisse, according to data compiled by Dealogic.

☆ Credit Suisse Failed to Probe Nazi Past, Senate Committee Says
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-18 | by ( Margot Patrick | Natalie Andrews | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Credit Suisse Group AG failed to fully investigate recent allegations that it supplied bank accounts to Nazi party members before and after World War II, and pushed aside an outside lawyer it had charged with overseeing an internal probe into the matter, according to a Senate committee investigation. The Senate investigation was prompted by the Simon Wiesenthal Center, which in 2020 said it believed that there were accounts at Credit Suisse holding money looted from Jewish victims, based on a list it had of 12,000 Nazi party members and a Nazi-affiliated labor union in Argentina.

☆ Credit Suisse hampered internal probe into Nazi-linked accounts, U.S. senators say
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-18 | by ( Chris Prentice | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

NEW YORK, April 18 (Reuters) - A committee of U.S. lawmakers on Tuesday said troubled Swiss bank Credit Suisse Group (CSGN.S) hampered a multiyear investigation into the servicing of Nazi clients and Nazi-linked accounts. Credit Suisse commissioned an investigation into allegations levied by a human rights organization that the bank held potential Nazi-linked accounts and failed to disclose them, even during Holocaust-related probes decades earlier. Credit Suisse defended its internal review in a statement, saying that the probe turned up no evidence to support key claims from the Simon Wiesenthal Center that dormant accounts serviced by Credit Suisse held assets from Holocaust victims. A representative for AlixPartners, the consulting firm Credit Suisse hired for the probe, did not respond immediately to a request for comment. His report, which the committee obtained via a subpoena, found many questions were left "unanswered" after Credit Suisse decided to halt the review.

WASHINGTON, April 14 (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve's Board of Governors on Friday said it has approved UBS Group AG's acquisition of the U.S. subsidiaries of Credit Suisse, clearing another major hurdle for the completion of the Swiss-brokered rescue deal. UBS has committed to give the U.S. central bank an implementation plan for combining its U.S. business and operations with those of Credit Suisse within three months of consummating the deal, the Fed's Board said in a statement. UBS agreed to buy Credit Suisse for 3 billion Swiss francs ($3.3 billion), a fraction of its earlier market value. UBS has said it expects the deal to create a business with more than $5 trillion in total invested assets. Under the takeover deal, holders of Credit Suisse AT1 bonds will get nothing, while shareholders, who usually rank below bondholders in compensation terms, will receive $3.23 billion.

☆ BlackRock sells asset-backed bonds from Credit Suisse's books, Bloomberg reports
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

April 13 (Reuters) - Credit Suisse Group AG (CSGN.S) has hired BlackRock Inc (BLK.N) to help sell a portfolio of structured bonds for the Swiss bank, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday. BlackRock's Financial Markets Advisory group has been selling off securities over the last two weeks, including pieces of collateralized loan obligations, commercial mortgage bonds and niche asset-backed debt, Bloomberg reported, citing people with knowledge of the matter. BlackRock declined to comment, while Credit Suisse did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. The move comes after the Swiss lender was acquired by UBS Group AG (UBSG.S) in a state-brokered deal. Reporting by Shivani Tanna in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'SilvaOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Buffett: Do not panic about U.S. banking industry
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

April 12 (Reuters) - Warren Buffett on Wednesday said people should not be panicked about the banking industry or the safety of U.S. bank deposits, despite the recent failures of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank. People "do not need to be panicked" about the banking industry and "shouldn't be worried about deposits they have in an American bank," a message that has recently gotten "confused" and "mixed up," Buffett said. "It does really, really affect the system when people lose confidence in banks," he said. Silicon Valley Bank collapsed on March 10 after losses on fixed-income investments left it short of capital, triggering a bank run. Buffett was speaking from Tokyo, where he was visiting five large Japanese trading houses in which Berkshire has investments.

☆ UBS considers retaining Credit Suisse's India unit - Bloomberg News
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

April 12 (Reuters) - UBS Group AG (UBSG.S) is considering retaining Credit Suisse Group AG's (CSGN.S) private banking unit in India after the emergency rescue of its smaller rival last month, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday citing people familiar with the matter. Reporting by Kanjyik Ghosh in Bengaluru; Editing by Jacqueline WongOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Buffett: Do not panic about U.S. banks and deposits
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-12 | by ( Jonathan Stempel | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

April 12 (Reuters) - Warren Buffett said people should not be panicked about the banking industry or the safety of U.S. bank deposits, despite the recent failures of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank. "People shouldn't be worried about losing their money and their deposits they have in an American bank, but the message has gotten very confused," Buffett, 92, said on CNBC. Berkshire's equity portfolio includes several banks, including a $34.2 billion year-end stake in Bank of America Corp (BAC.N). Buffett says banks have "mismanaged" assets and liabilities for a long time, and "every now and then it bites them in a big way." Buffett also said he would bet $1 million that no American depositor would lose money from a bank failure in the next year.

☆ Take Five: An uneasy calm
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-06 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Kazuo Ueda takes over the helm at the Bank of Japan while U.S. bank earnings kick off and Switzerland's parliament debates the UBS-Credit Suisse tie up. 1/ BANKS' BOTTOM LINESThe uneasy calm that has settled over the U.S. banking sector after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank will be tested as U.S. financials kick off their earnings season. S&P 500 earnings are predicted to fall 5.0%, I/B/E/S data from Refinitiv showed. Reuters Graphics5/ SPRING MEETINGSPolicymakers and investors head to Washington for the World Bank and International Monetary Fund Spring meetings starting on Monday. It will be the first meeting for Ajay Banga, U.S. nominee to run the World Bank and sole contender for the job.

☆ Crisis jolts Wall Street bankers already resigned to tough job market
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( Tatiana Bautzer | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street bankers face an increasingly gloomy job market after last month’s banking crisis worsened an already bleak outlook for pay and staffing. One likely consequence of the turmoil is that banks tighten their lending standards, which could further hinder dealmaking - making the prospects for jobs and compensation on Wall Street more gloomy. Now, financial industry workers are fretting not only about pay, but job security. The Wall Street giant typically cuts about 5% of its lowest-performing staff as part of the process. While there are plenty of reasons to be glum, Wall Street workers are enjoying one silver lining after the pandemic: greater flexibility in structuring their workday.

☆ UBS faces investors after shotgun Credit Suisse takeover
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( Noele Illien | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Last month, Swiss authorities announced that UBS would buy Credit Suisse in a shotgun merger to stem further banking turmoil after the smaller lender had come to the brink of collapse. After a run on deposits, the Swiss government had turned to UBS, which agreed to buy Credit Suisse for 3 billion Swiss francs ($3.3 billion), while the Alpine state put up more than 200 billion francs of support and guarantees. Now, the bank is looking at how to navigate the mammoth task of integrating Credit Suisse, the success of which Switzerland depends on, without undermining its strengths. On Tuesday, Reuters also reported that the Bank of England had approved UBS' takeover of Credit Suisse in Britain, a key market for the Swiss lenders racing to close the rescue deal. UBS also secured a temporary green light from European Union antitrust regulators to complete its acquisition of Credit Suisse, but will still have to request clearance under EU merger rules, the European Commission said.

☆ Switzerland faced a full-scale bank run if Credit Suisse went bankrupt, Swiss regulator argues
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( Ruxandra Iordache | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

It would have erased the holding company Credit Suisse Group, along with the parent bank Credit Suisse AG and its branches, while retaining the Credit Suisse (Schewiz) AG entity because of its "systemic importance." "The parent bank Credit Suisse AG would have gone under – a Swiss bank with total assets of over CHF 350 billion and ongoing business also running into many billions," Angehrn warned. Many other Swiss banks would probably have faced a run on deposits, as Credit Suisse itself did in the fourth quarter of 2022." Angehrn said the regulator has been in recent dialogue with the U.S., but did not experience international pressure in its supervision of Credit Suisse. The authorities would have risked not stopping a looming financial crisis by using the tool of resolution, but rather triggering such a financial crisis."

☆ Credit Suisse Chairman: ‘I Am Truly Sorry’
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-04 | by ( Patricia Kowsmann | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Credit Suisse Group AG’s annual shareholder meeting Tuesday was supposed to be the launchpad for its recovery. Instead, it became the final chapter of its nearly 167-year-old history. Security was tight and check-in was slow for some 1,750 shareholders who showed up at the hockey stadium in the north of Zurich, normally home to concerts and comedians. It was the first Credit Suisse annual meeting held in person since the Covid-19 pandemic took hold in early 2020.

[1/2] A logo of the Swiss bank UBS is seen on the Paradeplatz in Zurich, Switzerland March 21, 2023. Representatives for UBS and Credit Suisse declined to comment. The longer the deal takes to close, the harder it could be for Credit Suisse to hold on to its business. The United Kingdom, where Credit Suisse has $60 billion of risk-weighted assets primarily in its investment banking division, is one of its biggest markets outside of Switzerland. John Glen, chief secretary to the UK Treasury, said last week he did not have any immediate concerns about the execution of Switzerland's Credit Suisse rescue by UBS.

☆ Swiss Prosecutors Probe State-Backed Credit Suisse Takeover by UBS
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-02 | by ( Patricia Kowsmann | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

UBS is paying more than $3 billion for Credit Suisse. Switzerland’s prosecutors are probing the government-orchestrated takeover of Credit Suisse Group AG by rival UBS Group AG. The federal prosecutor has reached out to national and local authorities and “issued investigation orders” to analyze and identify if any criminal offenses took place under the deal, which also involved the government, the financial regulator, Finma, and Switzerland’s central bank, a spokeswoman said in a statement.

Credit Suisse Group AG’s new-look investment bank, CS First Boston, was supposed to help salvage the lender. Instead, it may have hastened its fall. The Swiss bank, buffeted by years of missteps and scandals, had a choice last year: Raise even billions more in new stock to shut down its scandal-prone investment bank or pull out the best parts and try to make money. It went for the second option, and miscalculated investors’ willingness to give it one more shot.

[1/2] The corporate logo of financial firm Morgan Stanley is pictured on a building in San Diego, California, Sept. 24, 2013. The investor lawsuits in the U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York are Tan v. Goldman Sachs Group Inc et al, No. 21-08413; Florio v. Goldman Sachs Group Inc et al, No. 21-10286; Scully v. Goldman Sachs Group Inc et al, No. 21-10791, and Lee v. Goldman Sachs Group Inc et al, No.

And that has the impact of postponing some announcements," said Anu Aiyengar, global head of M&A at JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N). M&A volumes dropped 44% to $282.7 billion in the U.S. and 70% to $81.87 billion in Europe. Reuters Graphics"Having a well-functioning financing market is a critical ingredient for M&A. Global M&A volumes in Q1 2023LACK OF CONFIDENCEThe depressed market valuations also presented an opportunity for prominent activist investors to launch new proxy fights, with dealmakers anticipating a boost to M&A volumes from activist campaigns in the coming quarters. "Inflationary pressures aren't subsiding as fast as people expected; there's still a lot of geopolitical tensions, and in a lot of ways, the disruption in the financing market is intensifying," Langston said.

☆ Credit Suisse withdraws certain proposals to AGM following UBS merger
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

March 29 (Reuters) - Credit Suisse Group AG (CSGN.S) said on Wednesday it has withdrawn certain proposals to the 2023 annual general meeting following the lender's recent merger with UBS Group AG (UBSG.S). The withdrawn proposals includes the discharge of the board of directors and executive board for the financial year 2022. It also withdrew a proposal for a one-time deferred share-based transformation award for the executive board, the lender said in a statement. UBS this month agreed to buy rival Swiss bank Credit Suisse for 3 billion Swiss francs ($3.23 billion) in stock and agreed to assume up to 5 billion francs ($5.4 billion) in losses, in a shotgun merger engineered by Swiss authorities to avoid more market-shaking turmoil in global banking. Reporting by Anirudh Saligrama in Bengaluru;Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ The Banker Tasked With Saving Swiss Banking
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( Eliot Brown | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

During Sergio Ermotti ’s last stint as chief executive officer at UBS Group AG , the bank slashed thousands of jobs, sharpened its focus and became the dominant Swiss financial institution, while rival Credit Suisse Group AG remained strategically scattered and scandal-prone. Now the plain-spoken, immaculately dressed former derivatives trader is about to be in charge of both.

Search resuls for: "Credit Suisse Group"

25 mentions found