Renta 4 : Credit Suisse has asked the Swiss National Bank to lend it 50 billion Swiss francs (€50.6 billion) of liquidity to strengthen it pre-emptively. In addition, the bank has announced a senior debt offering.
This aid comes after the bank announced a review of its 2021 and 2022 accounts after finding flaws in risk measurement, and its main shareholder with a 9.8% stake said it will not inject more capital (it cannot exceed 10% due to regulatory issues). As a reminder, Credit Suisse last year increased capital by CHF 4 billion.
Valuation
Credit Suisse’s business model is not comparable to that of Spanish banks, while their exposure to the Swiss bank is not relevant. According to data the combined exposure of Spanish entities to the bank would not exceed €1 billion.
We believe that the punishment to share prices has been excessive, although this is perhaps understandable in view of the loss of confidence in the financial sector as a whole and the risk to stability. However, leaving Credit Suisse aside, we believe that part of the corrections are due to the change in interest rate expectations.
In this context of uncertainty, we should continue to see high volatility in stock prices, with downward pressure and more so if today the ECB confirms the market’s new expectations.
