Credit Suisse posts $4 billion loss ahead of crucial revamp

Credit Suisse Group AG reported its fourth straight loss as its investment bank continued to struggle, wealthy clients fled and the lender booked a charge related to a critical overhaul that’s been in the making for months.

The net loss of 4.03 billion Swiss francs ($4.08 billion) in the three months through September included a 3.7 billion-franc impairment of deferred tax assets that is related to the revamp, Credit Suisse said.

The investment bank will be radically restructured over the next three years, Credit Suisse said, after the unit posted a pretax loss of 666 million francs. Clients across the bank pulled 12.9 billion francs amid uncertainty linked to bank’s revamp.

Credit Suisse warned that it will probably record another loss in the fourth quarter because of costs related to its transformation. The firm announced a raft of other changes, including thousands of job cuts, the sale of its structured products group and a capital increase to the tune of 4 billion francs, as Chief Executive Officer Ulrich Koerner and Chairman Axel Lehmann seek to put an end to years of scandals and management missteps.

Speculation about how they plan to address loss of investor confidence already prompted some clients to cut business. The bank said it “experienced a significant level of deposit and

assets under management outflows” in the first two weeks of October, following negative press and social media coverage.

—Bloomberg

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