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Credit Suisse has revealed sweeping plans to slash 9,000 jobs and to raise billions of pounds from investors, including from the Saudi National Bank, as part of a company-wide overhaul meant to draw a line under a series of scandals and help it recover from a fresh £3.5bn loss.
The announcement follows months of speculation over the scale of change scheduled under its new boss Ulrich Körner, who has been tasked with scaling back the investment bank and slashing more than 2.5bn Swiss francs (£2.18bn) in costs.
The shake-up follows a series of scandals, primarily involving its investment bank. The bank also revealed on Thursday it had racked up a 4bn Swiss franc loss (£3.5bn) in the third quarter, signalling further financial woes.
The Swiss banking group, which is the country’s second-largest bank, said on Thursday that it was already in the process of slashing 2,700 full-time staff, accounting for roughly one-third of its planned cuts, and a fifth of its 52,000 global employees.
It expects the total staff base to shrink to 43,000 by the end of 2025, through a mix of further job cuts and natural attrition, meaning it will not replace staff when they leave the bank. The lender did not confirm how many of its 5,500 UK staff could be affected.
“This is a historic moment for Credit Suisse,” Körner said. “We are radically restructuring the investment bank to help create a new bank that is simpler, more stable and with a more focused business model built around client needs.”
The bank said it expects its restructuring plans – which will put more focus on its asset management division for wealthy clients – to cost the lender about Sfr2.9bn over the next year. That will be funded by dumping some of its investments, selling portions of its business, and raising fresh money from investors.
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Credit Suisse bosses are hoping investors will green-light plans to raise Sfr4bn, including Sfr1.5bn from the Saudi National Bank (SNB), next month. The move would give the SNB a 9.9% shareholding in the Swiss lender, making it the second-largest investor behind US investment group, Harris Associates.
The overhaul follows a series of scandals in recent years. Credit Suisse was embroiled in the collapse of the lender Greensill Capital and the US hedge fund Archegos Capital in 2021. That same year, it also admitted defrauding investors as part of the Mozambique “tuna bonds” loan scandal, resulting in a fine worth more than £350m.
This year, Swiss prosecutors found the bank guilty of helping to launder money on behalf of the Bulgarian mafia. The bank has denied wrongdoing and said it will appeal against the ruling.
Credit Suisse also came under fire after the Suisse secrets investigation, which showed it had served clients involved in torture, drug trafficking, money laundering, corruption and other serious crimes over decades.
“The new executive board is focused on restoring trust through the relentless and accountable delivery of our new strategy, where risk management remains at the very core of everything we do,” Körner said.
