Banks limit their transactions with Credit Suisse sources


by Shankar Ramakrishnan, Stefania Spezzati and Sumeet Chatterjee

(Reuters) – At least four major banks, including Societe Generale and Deutsche Bank, have imposed trading restrictions on Credit Suisse or assets linked to the Swiss bank, Reuters has learned from five sources with direct knowledge of the matter.

Credit Suisse did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Reuters.

The bank, battered on the stock market after a series of scandals, financial losses and investor defiance, had previously declared itself to be sufficiently robust and of global size when it benefited this week from a loan of 50 billion Swiss francs (50, 7 billion euros) from its central bank, the Swiss National Bank (SNB).

“We meet and even exceed all regulatory requirements. Our capital and liquidity are very strong,” Credit Suisse chief executive Ulrich Körner told reporters earlier this week, a spokesman for the group told Reuters. .

This is the first time that such distrust of the banks towards Credit Suisse has been made public. All five sources requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the situation.

Societe Generale, which has reduced its counterparty positions with Credit Suisse in recent weeks, does not plan to increase them, according to two sources directly informed of the matter.

Solicited, Societe Generale declined to comment.

Deutsche Bank, for its part, wrote down the value of some assets linked to Credit Suisse this week, according to an official at a European wealth management firm with business ties to the German bank. Deutsche Bank also declined to comment.

HSBC Holdings’ private banking division has also begun to look closely at its claims related to Credit Suisse securities, held by clients in Europe and Asia, said a source with direct knowledge of the matter. The source added that the bank had not yet made a decision on reducing its exposure to the Swiss bank, but was closely monitoring developments and would make a decision on the matter in the future. beginning of next week.

HSBC did not immediately comment.

Another source from a major bank, in direct contact with Credit Suisse in Asia, said that its establishment had decided to ask the Swiss bank to settle an operation immediately, which could have been recovered later.

According to a source, a major bank has also reduced its exposure to Credit Suisse, particularly on unsecured loans.

(Reporting Shankar Ramakrishnan, Sumeet Chatterjee, Stefania Spezzati, Vidya Ranganathan, Elisa Martinuzzi and Selena Li; French version Claude Chendjou, editing by Jean-Stpéhane Brosse)

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