LONDON — Credit Suisse on Thursday announced that it swung to a loss in 2021, after a tumultuous year led to a significant increase in litigation provisions.
The Swiss lender posted a full-year net loss of 1.57 billion Swiss francs ($1.7 billion), well below expectations of a 377.95 million Swiss franc loss, according to Refinitiv. The bank reported a fourth quarter net loss attributable to shareholders of 2.01 billion Swiss francs. Analysts had expected a profit of 25.73 million Swiss francs.
The bank said it took “major litigation provisions” of 1.1 billion Swiss francs in 2021.
It has been embroiled in a series of high-profile scandals in recent years, most recently when its chairman Antonio Horta-Osorio resigned last month after repeatedly violating Covid-19 quarantine rules.
Horta-Osorio had come in with the intention of cleaning up the bank’s corporate culture after its investment banking division suffered considerable hits in 2021 due to its involvement with collapsed investment firm Archegos Capital and insolvent supply chain finance company Greensill.
On top of that, former CEO Tidjane Thiam resigned in early 2020 following a bizarre and protracted spying scandal that rocked Switzerland’s second-largest bank to its foundations.
— This is a breaking news story and will be updated shortly
