Credit Suisse delays annual report after last-minute call from SEC

Oliver Hirt, Noele Illien

ZURICH, Reuters – Credit Suisse postponed publishing its annual report following a last-minute call by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. This phone call raised concerns about Credit Suisse’s financial statements in previous years.

Credit Suisse has suffered a string of setbacks, including scandals and financial difficulties that led to the collapse in its share price and forced clients to pull out billions. Credit Suisse now faces an unusual U.S. regulatory intervention.

The bank stated that the SEC called them late Wednesday evening. “certain open SEC comments about the technical assessment of previously disclosed revisions to the consolidated cash flow statements in the years ended December 31, 2020, and 2019.”

It had changed the way it recorded a number of cash flows including shares-based compensation and foreign currency hedges. 

Credit Suisse stated that it had decided, following the conference call to delay publication of its annual report.

“Management believes it is prudent to briefly delay the publication of its accounts in order to understand more thoroughly the comments received,” It added that 2022’s financial results would be announced. “are not impacted”.

According to a source familiar with the matter, the SEC was not the only regulatory authority involved.

The release date for the annual 2022 report is not yet known.

Analysts didn’t like the announcement by the bank.

Credit Suisse is described as such by Daniel Bosshard of Luzerner Kantonalbank “a major construction site” And said “the share is only suitable for turnaround speculators.”

Andreas Venditti of Vontobel stated the following: “does not help investor sentiment and it does not help in rebuilding trust.”

Credit Suisse shares fell 6% in Zurich morning trading, close to their record low.

Credit Suisse Group, which reported in February its worst annual loss of 2008 after clients pulled their funds, said that 2022 would be the biggest year-over-year loss. “substantial” This year, there would be loss.

Switzerland’s 2nd-largest bank is undergoing a significant overhaul. They are cutting costs, creating new jobs, and creating a business to support their investment bank, CS First Boston.

Credit Suisse was one of many scandals that fell on the Credit Suisse’s shoulders. It suffered from the 2021 collapse of American investment firm Archegos and the subsequent freezing of billions worth of supply chain finance funds connected to Greensill, a British bankrupt.

The bank also faced scandals from another source: a Switzerland prosecution for laundering money to a criminal gang.

Rating agency Standard & Poor’s downgraded the bank last November to one-eighth of junk.

(Additional reporting done by John Revill in Zurich, editing by John O’Donnell und Tomasz Jaowski).