By Lisa Jucca
ZURICH (Reuters) - Swiss bank Credit Suisse
The bank said the loss in the two months to end November, primarily in investment banking, where most of the job cuts will fall, was due to adverse market conditions and risk reduction.
More than 100,000 jobs have been lost in the financial industry as banks across the world slash costs to cope with the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.
"These actions will better position us to weather the continuing challenging market conditions, capture opportunities that arise amid the continuing disruption, and prosper when markets improve," Chief Executive Brady Dougan said.
In addition, the bank will take a restructuring charge of 900 million Swiss francs, mostly in the fourth quarter.
Analysts at Wegelin said in a research note: "Restructuring costs are not yet included. Thus, the total fourth-quarter loss could well be closer to 4 billion francs."
On the brighter side, Credit Suisse said in November alone it was modestly profitable, and it also said its private banking segment was still seeing asset inflows and had hired 370 relationship managers this year.
Having fallen 9 percent on Wednesday, Credit Suisse shares reflected the positives, climbing 7 percent to 29.64 Swiss francs by 0955 GMT, while the DJ Stoxx index of European banking stocks <.SX7P> was up 2.1 percent.
"The good news is that the loss occurred in October, and in November the bank was already profitable," said Georg Kanders, an analyst with WestLB.
"The company is not sitting still; they are carrying out a cost reduction. It is impressive how they have reduced risk, and they say they have quite good net new money."
NO GOVERNMENT HELP NEEDED
Traders say investors have looking more critically at Credit Suisse since the Swiss state bailed out rival UBS
When the rescue package for UBS was announced in October, Credit Suisse said it did not need government help, and Dougan told a conference call he did not foresee any circumstances in which the bank would need such help.
Echoing a similar move at UBS, the bank also said that, given its performance to date, "it would not be appropriate" for its chairman, its chief executive officer and the head of its investment bank to receive any bonuses for 2008.
Thursday's announcement brings the total number of job cuts at Credit Suisse this year to about 7,100, paring its workforce to about 45,000. Rival UBS is cutting about 9,000 jobs, also mostly in investment banking, to bring its total headcount to under 80,000.
Credit Suisse said the investment bank would bear two thirds of the new job cuts, bringing its staff to 17,500 by the end of 2009 from 21,300 at the end of the third quarter. There will also be cuts in asset management and private banking.
Most of the job cuts would take place by the end of the first half of 2009 and, along with other measures, should save 2 billion Swiss francs, or about 9 percent of the cost base.
In addition it said it would axe 1,400 contractors.
A spokeswoman said the new cuts included 650 investment banking jobs in Britain and 170 jobs in Asia already announced this week.
Credit Suisse said it had aggressively reduced risk-weighted assets and was aiming to bring them down to $170 billion by the end of the year from $236 billion at the end of 2007, and to $135 billion by the end of next year.
It said its investment bank would exit certain proprietary and principal trading activities to cut risk capital usage and continue to cut its origination capacity in complex credit and structured product businesses.
The bank also said it expected its Tier 1 ratio, a measure of its financial strength, to be around 13 percent at the end of this year, one of the strongest in the industry.
Dougan said Credit Suisse already met stricter new bank capital requirements that Switzerland's bank regulator said it had agreed on Thursday.
(Additional reporting by Rupert Pretterklieber and Olesya Dmitracova; Editing by Will Waterman)
