Credit Suisse latest credit market victim with SF2.15 Billion Loss (Bloomberg) (24-04-2008)

April 24 (Bloomberg) -- Credit Suisse Group reports a first-quarter loss in excess of estimates on writedowns linked to deteriorating credit markets.

According to its statement today, the bank net loss totaled 2.15 billion Swiss francs ($2.1 billion), almost reversing last year’s a 2.73 billion-franc profit. The median estimate of 14 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News was for a 594 million-franc loss.

The “clearly unsatisfactory” results, according to CEO Brady Dougan, come after 5.3 billion francs of markdowns on leveraged loans and mortgage-related securities, but are far behind UBS AG, which said on April 1 it lost about 12 billion francs in the first quarter and plans to scale back its investment bank.

Credit Suisse dropped 23 percent in Zurich trading this year, trimming its market value to 61 billion francs and pushing the stock in March to the lowest since December 2004. UBS has declined 33 percent so far in 2008.

Its major setback was revealed last month, when Dougan said an internal review found that traders deliberately mispriced certain debt securities. The episode was first disclosed in February, a week after the bank said its risk management systems helped it sidestep the worst of the subprime market crash.

Source Bloomberg