Crédit Suisse to Axe 500 Jobs After SFr 3.23 bn Loss

by Christina 123 | October 28, 2008 at 10:12 am

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BANQUE Crédit Suisse are to axe 500 support jobs, most of them in the UK and the US, it has been announced today. It has announced Swiss Francs 3.23 billion losses after a write down of Sfr 2.43 billion on leveraged finance and structured products.

The news comes as the government warns that British banks are likely to lose £50bn over the next few years.

Oct. 28 (Bloomberg) -- Credit Suisse Group AG, Switzerland's second-biggest bank, plans to eliminate 500 jobs in its securities unit and some support functions, adding to 1,565 cuts announced over the past year.

The reductions are in response to ``market conditions and projected staffing levels required to meet client needs,'' said Karen Laureano-Rikardsen, a spokeswoman for the Zurich-based bank. The firm's securities unit employed 21,300 people at the end of September.

Chief Executive Officer Brady Dougan said last week the fourth quarter remained ``challenging'' after the bank reported its second quarterly loss this year on writedowns and failed trades. Banks and brokerages have already reported more than 148,000 job cuts and $680 billion of markdowns and credit losses.

``The difficult revenue picture further highlights the challenges Credit Suisse and the rest of the industry face in flexing costs down in this environment,'' Citigroup Inc. analysts led by Jeremy Sigee said in a note on Oct. 24.

Swiss rival UBS AG, which had the biggest losses from the subprime crisis of any European bank, said earlier this month it will cut 2,000 more jobs at the investment bank, following 7,000 staff reductions already announced in the past year.

Credit Suisse said last week that 1.7 billion Swiss francs ($1.5 billion) of losses on buying and selling securities of financial institutions, convertible bonds, and on certain proprietary trading strategies contributed to its third-quarter net loss of 1.26 billion francs.