2009-02-11 Q4 Report:
Credit Suisse sang the same refrain as UBS and others reporting for fiscal full year 2008, namely largest loss ever. For the fourth quarter Credit Sussie swung to net loss from a year-ago profit, hit by major trading losses and 3.19 billion Swiss francs ($2.75 billion) in write-downs on structured products and big buyout loans.
Here’s the tally thus far:
- Tally for Write-Downs/Charge-Offs: $8.95B + $2.72 = $11.67B
- Tally for cash raised: $8.64B + $11.74B = $20.38B
- Current Level III assets: $2.2B
- Current loan loss reserves: $417.13M
Misery Index to $34.67B.
2008-10-23 Q3 Earnings Report:
As it doses with everyone the credit crunch closed the gap on Credit Suisse at the speed of light and the banks fortunes have now taken a turn for the worse. The bank was able to fool around with level 3 accounting gimmicks to cut the level 3 assets way back on paper
Here’s the tally thus far:
- Tally for Write-Downs/Charge-Offs: $6.46B + $2.06 B = $8.52B
- Tally for cash raised: $8.64B
- Current Level III assets: $99,115.27M
- Fas 159 (revalue debt) :$1.63B
- Current loan loss reserves: $263M
The third quarter brings Credit Suisse’s current Misery Index to $115.0B.
2008-07-24 Q2 Earnings Report:
Credit Sussie remains in a perpetual state of gaming the market. The bank tried to claim a mere $21 million in write-downs reports second quarter 2008 as if we would forget to $2.85 billion write-down the bank took just two months ago. Thankfully edition is communicative and associative you have to count it no matter how you add it.
Here’s the tally thus far:
- Tally for Write-Downs/Charge-Offs: $6.25B + $21.3M = $6.46B
- Tally for cash raised: $0.0B
- Current Level III assets: $87.87
- Current loan loss reserves: $48.6M
We now sum all the distresses to get Credit Suisse’s current Misery Index of $142.76B.
2008-05-22 Write Downs Count of a Different Sort:
We have been keeping a running tally of write downs and other credit related distress taken by the major banks since 2007. But here come a write down count of a different sort, how much in writedowns and credit losses firms have written off per wholesale banking employee.
Credit Suisse – $6.3bn, 20,000, $315,000 per employee
2008-04-14- Write Down Season: For the banks it may as well be called write down season from now on with earnings becoming hard to come by as the credit crunch deepens. We are up to date on so far on Credit Suisse at $5.95 billion in write downs for 2007.
Credit Suisse said March 20 it will write down a combined $2.65 billion in the fourth quarter of 2007 and the first quarter of 2008, making a profit this quarter “unlikely.” The Zurich-based bank’s spokesman Andres Luther declined to comment on Tages-Anzeiger’s figures when contacted by phone today.
A $4 billion hit puts our boy in the double digit billion dollar big leagues. We arw taking bets that the wirte downs go higher than the $4B.
2008-02-20 - Paper Tiger:
Let’s say you own a house and suppose the appraiser values your castle at twice what it was last year, say $200,000 more for argument. Then say just say you want to impress your parents, can you tell them you made $200,000? Well I sort a doubt it, it’s unrealized, i.e. paper profit. But don’t try to tell that to Credit Suisse. It seems a
little-noticed financial accounting standard rule 159 allowed Credit Suisse to report $1.2 billion in gains on its 2007 income statement simply because of the widening of the credit spreads in own debt. Simply put, about 16 percent of the bank’s $7.43 billion in annual net income exists solely on paper.
I wonder how they will deal with the $1.2 billion big uns? Will they write it down –there has been a lot of practice at that lately– or just move it to the unrealized gains column? For it’s part the bank insn’t saying. From the article
‘A Credit Suisse spokesman declined comment.’
For us tack on another iffy $1.2 billion to keep track of. We classify this under the new general heading of Level 3.
Credit Suisse’s writedown tally:
- Tally for Write-Downs/Charge-Offs: $3.4B+ $2.85B = $6.25B
- Level 3 : $1.2B
2008-02-19 – Rogue Excuesses:
Credit Suisse will nearl double it’s current write down total of $3.4 B by writing down another $2.85bn of mortgage-related assets within its investment banking division. The Swiss bank had reported it would take a relatively small total write-down of less than $2bn. that will take a $1B bite out of first quarter net. A spokesman for Switzerland’s second largest bank said
a small number of traders were under investigation for overvaluing asset-backed securities.
“I can’t tell you exactly how many, but a small number, a handful,” Credit Suisse spokesman Marc Dosch told The Associated Press.
An internal review found “mismarkings and pricing errors” in the bank’s structured credit trading business, which has also been affected by the subprime mortgage crisis and the subsequent downturn in world markets, Credit Suisse said Tuesday.
The writedowns keep piling up. When in doubt, blame it on the rogue traders.
Credit Suisse’s writedown tally:
- Tally for Write-Downs/Charge-Offs: $3.4B+ $2.85B = $6.25B
2008-02-12- Fiscal 2007 Q4 Earnings:
Credit Suisse Group, reported fourth-quarter 2007 profit fell 72 percent on write-downs of 1.3 billion Swiss Francs or $1.18 billion on debt and leveraged loans. The bank’s Asset management wrote down 774 million Swiss francs ($702.5 million) in securities bought from the money-market funds it manages to provide short-term liquidity. The bank stated a figure of about $1.9 billion for sub-prime write-downs.
Remaining exposure includes 2.7 billion francs in CDOs, 8.7 billion francs in RMBS, 25.9 billion francs in CMBS and 36.o billion francs in leveraged loans plus an additional 2.2 billion francs in non subprime loans. The bank reported net (of hedges) subprime exposure at 1.6 billion francs ($1.45 billion). On page 22 of it’s fourth quarter report the bank breaks the RMBS further into $2.5 billion of Alt-A saying of the other RMBS non-agency exposure
‘Of this amount, our US Alt-A exposure was CHF 2.8 billion (USD 2.5 billion) as of the end of 4Q07 versus CHF 7.0 billion (USD 6.0 billion) as of the end of 3Q07′
Things could have been much worse for the bank had they not reduced exposure to subprime 40% by originating fewer subprime mortgages in 2006 than in 2005. The bank also removed CDO and US subprime exposure from it’s structured investment vehicle (SIV) and gave the “all clear” signal on page 41 of the report.
‘In 3Q07 and 4Q07, we repositioned our money market funds by purchasing securities from these funds with the intent to eliminate structured investment vehicle (SIV), asset-backed CDO and US subprime exposure. As of the end of 4Q07, there were no US subprime positions and no material SIV or CDO positions in our money market funds. The securities transactions were executed in order to address liquidity concerns caused by the US market’s extreme conditions.’
We surmise it is not the 25.9 billion francs in commercial mortgage bonds and the extreme market conditions that are most dire for 2008, but the counter-party risk involved in the subprime hedges. In its press release the bank was coy on the subject saying only
‘ The majority of the funded and unfunded loan commitments exposure is to large cap issuers with historically stable cash flows and substantial assets. The commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) business had net writedowns of CHF 384 million in the quarter. Within this business, the origination gross exposure was CHF 25.9 billion at the end of the quarter, down from CHF 35.9 billion at the end of the third quarter. The vast majority of the loans are secured by stable, high quality, income-producing real estate to a diverse range of borrowers in the US, Europe and Asia.’
Also the bank said it has received subpoenas and requests for information about subprime mortgages from regulators. The company said it faces a purported class-action lawsuit related to its role in underwriting mortgage pass-through certificates for a unit of Countrywide Financial Corp. Additionally the bank recently (Jan. 25) announced 500 layoffs, mostly in investment banking.
Credit Suisse’s writedown tally:
- Tally for Write-Downs/Charge-Offs: $2.2B+ $1.2B = $3.4 B
2007-11-01- Q3 Earnings :
Credit Suisse has thus far not performed too badly amidst the market turmoil espicaly compared to cross town rival UBS, took down $14.5 big ones. The company wrote down about $2.2 B related to the subprime monster in the third quarter of 2007. But cross town rival UBS took down $14.5 big ones.
But Credit Suisse’s investment bank was hit by write-downs of more than 2.2 billion Swiss francs ($2 billion) in November. That is far less severe, however, than what happened at archrival UBS, which has disclosed $14.5 billion in write-downs.
The writedowns came from the leaking SIVs of Investment Banking.
The structured products businesses, including residential and commercial mortgages and collateralized debt obligations (CDOs), recorded a valuation reduction of CHF 1.1 billion, net of fees and hedges. Net revenues also reflected a valuation reduction of CHF 1.1 billion on leveraged loan commitments, net of fees and hedges.
The good news for Cerdit Sussie is that this is one game in which you do win for losing, so we begin Credit Suisse’s writedown tally:
- Tally for Write-Downs/Charge-Offs: $2.2B
