Credit Suisse had a stellar performance in the fourth quarter of 2019, the last quarter that outgoing CEO Tidjane Thiam was fully responsible for.
Pretax profit excluding one-off items increased by more than half to 1 billion Swiss francs ($1.02 billion) in the fourth quarter of 2019, driven by higher revenues, the Zurich-based bank said in a statement on Thursday. Including the one-off items, such as the revaluation of its stake in SIX and litigation provisions, pretax amounted to 1.2 billion, compared with 595 million a year earlier.
The return on tangible equity reached 9 percent, which compares favorably with the 3 percent of the fourth quarter of 2018 and is close to the 10 percent the bank aims to achieve.
Thiam Goes Out With Pride Intact
«I am proud of what Credit Suisse has achieved during my tenure,» said Thiam in the statement. «We have turned Credit Suisse around, and our 2019 results show we can be sustainably profitable.»
With the presentation of today’s results, Thiam will hand over responsibility for Switzerland’s second-largest bank to Thomas Gottstein. The board last week decided to ask Thiam for his resignation following two cases of spying on outgoing executives that left the bank’s reputation in tatters.
Healthy Outlook
In the outlook, the bank said it had started the year strongly across all divisions: «As a result, we are optimistic about the prospects for the year ahead. We will continue to execute with discipline to maintain our strong momentum in 2020.»
