Credit Suisse Group
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| Credit Suisse Group | |
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| Founded | 1856 |
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| Headquarters | Zurich, Switzerland |
| Key People | CEO Brady W. Dougan |
| Products | Retail and investment banking and brokerage |
| Corporate Website | www.credit-suisse.com |
Credit Suisse Group, founded more than 150 years ago, is Switzerland's second-largest financial-services company behind Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS). Beginning in the late 1980s the group rapidly acquired a number of large financial-services companies in Switzerland and abroad[1] but streamlined its operations in 2002 and 2006 and has recently been hurt by the U.S. sub-prime mortgage meltdown.
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Recent History
In 2002 Credit Suisse Group (CSG) was streamlined into three business units: corporate/investment banking, asset management and private banking. Four years later the group reorganized again, merging the three branches under a single Credit Suisse umbrella and dropping the tarnished Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB) brand.[2] Later in 2006 CSG sold insurance and pensions arm Winterthur, which it had acquired in 1997, to French financial services giant AXA for $10 billion cash.
On January 27, 2010, it was announced that Credit Suisse AG had licensed the Dow Jones EURO STOXX 50 Index from STOXX Limited to serve as the basis for an exchange-traded fund.
Key People
Credit Suisse Group Chief Executive Officer Brady W. Dougan was ceo of Credit Suisse Investment Banking (formerly Credit Suisse First Boston) before his promotion to the top job in May 2007.[3] Dougan had been ceo of CSFB prior to the 2006 shakeup that tossed the CSFB stamp but he won the top job at its replacement, Credit Suisse Investment Banking, before being promoted to overall group head the following year.
Latest Problems
In late April 2008, CSG posted a net loss for the first quarter of $2.1 million (CHF2.15 billion), almost triple analysts' expectations of around CHF857 million, on investment writedowns of $5.3 billion.[4] By contrast, CSG recorded a profit for the first quarter 2007 of CHF2.8 billion.
Earlier in April, Credit Suisse Group announced it would cut 500 jobs in administration and investment banking in anticipation of the first quarter loss.[5] Dougan had already cut 500 jobs from investment banking in January 2008 and another 320 late last year.
Credit Suisse announced one month earlier that it had been forced to revise the securities valuations in its Collateralized Debt Obligation (CDO) investments due to "intentional misconduct" by some of its traders.[6] Credit Suisse's total valuation reduction on the CDO securities now totals $2.65 billion.
References
- ↑ Credit Suisse Group. SourceWatch.
- ↑ Credit Suisse Investment Banking firm profile. vault.com.
- ↑ Brady W. Dougan. Credit Suisse Group.
- ↑ Credit Suisse writes off $5.3 billion. International Herald Tribune.
- ↑ Credit Suisse Cutting 500 Jobs as Client Demand Wanes. Bloomberg.
- ↑ Press Release. Credit Suisse.
