Credit Suisse warns shareholders to brace themselves for a bumpy 2016
The chief executive of Credit Suisse has said the bank’s performance has been “encouraging” after it posted a pre-tax loss of 2.4bn swiss francs (£1.6bn) in 2015, but warned that 2016 will be a “challenging" year.
Tidjane Thiam, who moved to Credit Suisse last year, told shareholders at the group’s annual general meeting (AGM) today that he expects the bank's "financial performance in 2016 to continue to be affected by restructuring initiatives as we implement our strategy.”
Combine that with the fact Thiam said the bank was aiming for profitability over the medium and long-term, then shareholders will understand they are being told to brace themselves for another disappointing year.
Read more: Credit Suisse says everything’s going well – at least in Asia
“The first quarter of 2016 has seen a continuation of some of the negative pressures experienced in the fourth quarter of 2015. January and February were simply two of the worst months ever in international markets,” Thiam said.
The investment bank, which has seen its share price half in the space of a year, said it was fully aware that its performance had been “disappointing”. Shares dropped another four per cent to CHF 14.61 today.
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Credit Suisse will post first quarter results on 10 May.