On the financial markets, the wind of nervousness raised by the bankruptcy of the Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) does not fall. The concern today comes from a long-standing troubled institution, Credit Suisse, with no apparent link to the Californian bank SVB except for a generalized state of tension in the financial markets.
This Wednesday, the action of Credit Suisse collapsed up to -30%, thus falling to its all-time low following a declaration by its main Saudi shareholder, who does not count “ absolutely not » support the bank by recapitalizing it. The title of the Swiss bank closed at -24%.
The Saudi National Bank currently owns around 9.8% of Credit Suisse, just below the critical threshold of 10%. Credit Suisse had to raise four billion Swiss francs at the end of 2022 via a capital increase which had allowed the entry of the Saudi National Bank.
European indices in the red
In its wake, the main European banking stocks tumbled on the stock market on Wednesday. At the close of trading, BNP Paribas lost 10%, Société Générale 12% and Commerzbank 9%. The main European indices fell at the same time, the CAC 40 experiencing a black Wednesday at -3.5% in Paris, -3.3% in Frankfurt and 4.5% in Milan. At the beginning of the week, the securities of European banks had already suffered following the bankruptcy of SVB.
The measures of the American authorities and the assurances of the European governments on the solidity of the banking system following the bankruptcy of the Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) had succeeded in stabilizing the markets on Tuesday. But ” fears regarding the solidity of the sector ” persist and ” the shadow of the collapse of the SVB still hangs “, underlines Susannah Streeter, analyst of Hargreaves Lansdown. Nobel laureate in economics, Joseph Stiglitz, did not rule out other failures in an interview with AFP on Wednesday.
Elisabeth Borne reacts and pushes the Swiss authorities to intervene
A sign of this nervousness, French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne called on the Swiss authorities on Wednesday followingnoon to look into the problems of the bank Credit Suisse. ” This subject is the responsibility of the Swiss authorities. It must be settled by them “Explained before the Senate the French Prime Minister, assuring that the French Minister of Finance Bruno Le Maire” would have contact with his Swiss counterpart in the next few hours ».
For Credit Suisse, this new stock market slippage is in line with recurring difficulties. Its title has melted more than 83% of its value since the spectacular bankruptcy of the British financial company Greensill in 2021, which marked the start of a series of scandals which have weakened the bank.
The endless difficulties of Credit Suisse
Some shareholders have ended up giving up their shares, such as the American investment company Harris Associates, a long-time leading shareholder of Credit Suisse, which admitted last week that it had sold its stake in the bank entirely.
In February, Credit Suisse reported a net loss of 7.3 billion Swiss francs (nearly 7.4 billion euros) for the 2022 financial year, due to the effect of massive withdrawals of deposits from its customers. and said to anticipate a pre-tax loss “ substantial in 2023. On Tuesday, the title was already shaken on the stock market when the bank warned of “ fsubstantial weakness in its internal control mechanisms.