The ailing bank Crédit Suisse wants to borrow up to 50 billion francs (around 50.7 billion euros) from the Swiss National Bank (SNB). The institute announced this in an ad hoc announcement early Thursday morning. “Resolute measures to preventively strengthen” liquidity would thus be taken. This additional liquidity would support the core business and customers of Crédit Suisse, it said.
The bank’s shares fell by more than 30 percent to a record low in Zurich on Wednesday. The SNB and the Swiss Financial Market Authority Finma had previously announced that they would provide the financial institution with liquidity if required. There is currently no evidence of a direct risk of contagion for Swiss institutions due to the problems of US banks, it said.
According to the announcement, bank boss Ulrich Körner said: “With these measures, we are strengthening Crédit Suisse as part of our strategic change in order to create added value for our customers and other stakeholders. We thank the SNB and Finma for implementing our strategic change.”