Scandal-plagued Credit Suisse warns profit to take hit

Scandal-plagued banking giant Credit Suisse warned Tuesday that its fourth quarter profits will take a hit as it set aside more than $500 million to deal with litigation.

It is the latest round of bad news for Switzerland’s second biggest bank, which was rocked by the implosions of financial firms Greensill and Archegos last year.

Its chairman, Antonio Horta-Osorio, resigned last week for breaching Switzerland’s Covid quarantine rules.

Credit Suisse announced Tuesday that its fourth quarter profits “will be negatively impacted” due to litigation provisions of 500 million Swiss francs ($545 million, 482 million euros).

“These litigation provisions have been incurred in respect of a number of cases where the Group has more proactively pursued settlements and primarily relate to legacy litigation matters from our investment banking business,” Credit Suisse said.

The bank, which will announce full-year and four quarter earnings on February 10, said it now expects to break even in the final three months of 2021.

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