Credit Suisse reports worse-than-expected Q4 loss

Credit Suisse Group reported a fourth-quarter net loss Wednesday of 6 billion Swiss francs ($5.61 billion) as both asset management and investment banking posted large deficits.

Net loss per share for the quarter was 5.34 francs.

The results were far worse than the 3.72-billion-franc loss analysts had excepted.

Switzerland's second biggest bank said the results take its full-year net loss to 8.2 billion francs for 2008. A year earlier Credit Suisse had reported a net profit of 7.8 billion francs.

The investment bank racked up a pretax loss of 7.78 billion francs in the fourth quarter, which included writedowns of 3.19 billion francs. Credit Suisse said it has reduced its exposure to risky assets by 87 per cent between the end of the third quarter of 2007 and the start of this year.

Asset management saw pretax losses of 670 million francs, while private banking posted a pretax profit of 876 million francs.

"While our full-year results are clearly disappointing, we entered 2009 with a very strong capital position, a robust business model, a clear strategy and well-positioned businesses," chief executive Brady W Dougan said in a statement.