Credit Suisse to cut 1,500 jobs globally

Swiss banking major Credit Suisse today said it will axe 1,500 jobs worldwide as part of its aggressive cost-cutting measures.

Credit Suisse would trim about 3% of its global workforce (about 1,515 employees) across the group, out of a total strength of 50,500, the bank said in a statement.

This is in addition to about 2,000 layoffs announced in July.

The bank raised its cost savings target to 2 billion Swiss francs ($2.3 billion) at the end of 2013 from 1.2 billion Swiss francs set in the second quarter.

Switzerland's other major big bank, UBS, said in August it was trimming 3,500 jobs to save 2 billion francs annually.

Credit Suisse announced the job cuts even as it reported a 12% growth in net profit to 683 million francs for the third quarter ended September 30 from 609 million francs a year earlier.

"During the third quarter we experienced a challenging environment with a high degree of uncertainty, low levels of client activity across businesses and extreme market volatility. Since 2008, we have proactively pursued an integrated client-focused, capital-efficient strategy.

"This strategy, coupled with our conservative funding position and strong capitalization, has served us well during a period of unprecedented market volatility and industry change, allowing us to generate an average return on equity of 14.9% since the beginning of 2009," the company's CEO Brady W Dougan said.

Credit Suisse said it would allocate resources to faster-growing and large markets, especially Brazil, Southeast Asia, Greater China and Russia. The move is expected to increase revenues from these markets from 15% in 2010 to 25% by 2014.