At first glance, it looks like the largest shareholder in Credit Suisse nearly doubled its stake in the troubled Swiss bank.

Harris Associates which owns 266 million shares of Credit Suisse shares amounting to 10.1 percent of the total as of July 31, has added to its previous stake of 5.2 percent, according to a «Bloomberg» story (behind paywall).

Harris investment chief David Herro told the newspaper «Finanz und Wirtschaft» (in German, behind paywall) on Thursday, that the increase in the position has to do with a change in reporting practices. Some Harris Associates clients previously would have disclosed their CS holdings independently, he said. Now, the holdings would be reported in aggregate.

The 10.1 percent stake was disclosed in a regulatory filing with the SEC on Wednesday which is nearly double the 5.1 percent stake reported in Credit Suisse's annual reports since 2013. Since that time, the shares have lost some 78 percent in value, according to the report. The Qatar Investment Authority is the second largest shareholder in Credit Suisse with 5 percent as of November of last year.

Rating Downgrades

The disclosure of the state comes at a time when Credit Suisse was recently downgraded by the three major US rating agencies, as finews.com reported. One of the downgraded came on the same day that the bank's new CEO Ulrich Koerner started his tenure.

In presenting Koerner as the new CEO, Credit Suisse also announced he would be heading a strategic review of the bank which was short on specifics, as finews.com also reported. At the time, Credit Suisse said it would present details of the plan along with its third quarter results.