Credit Suisse releases its full-year financial figures following a delay prompted by a notice from the SEC. It still has homework to do.

Following an intervention by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) last week, Credit Suisse delayed the publication of its full financial figures by four working days. While nothing has changed in terms of content, the bank still has to go over its books.

In its latest annual report, Credit Suisse admits there were certain weaknesses in the controls over internal reporting in 2021 and 2022. As is the case for companies of its size, Credit Suisse's books are reviewed by external auditors, which for the bank is PwC.

Nothing Changed

Credit Suisse now says that after concluding talks with the SEC, the group confirmed the financial results for the 2022 financial year would have been the same as those published on February 9. That was also the case for the previously published financial results for fiscal years 2021 and 2020.

At issue was the US authorities contacting Credit Suisse on an emergency basis due to a recalculation of cash flow figures. However, the SEC's criticism of Credit Suisse's financial reporting, widely reported in the media, cannot be completely dismissed.

Danger of Misstatements

The bank has since initiated countermeasures and now feels confident the reported figures fairly reflect the actual state of the group, in all materially important aspects. Without the improvements introduced, however, Credit Suisse admits that the risk of misstatements would still have existed.

During the audit of Credit Suisse by PwC, it found that an internal control system had been designed by management for the preparation of consolidated financial statements according to the instructions of the Board of Directors.

But PwC noted that management did not design and maintain an effective risk assessment process to identify and analyze the risk of material misstatements in its consolidated financial statements within this system. In addition, management didn't design and maintain effective controls over the completeness and classification, and presentation of non-cash items in the consolidated statements of cash flows, according to a statutory auditor report from PwC.