What would happen if Credit Suisse goes bust?

CS delays its annual report. That’s all I"ve heard.

I should really learn to use puts. Seems fun.

1 Like

Just saw by chance some headline in the NZZ that the US is putting its nose into CS, if I got that correctly…

1 Like

On twitter they are making it as big deal…like the next one that is going to fail (after SVB)

https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/credit-suisse-delays-publication-annual-report-following-sec-call-2023-03-09/

Some people (insiders I guess) have made millions with SVB yesterday with puts

2 Likes

Edit for the “still quite an upside” phrasing: indeed, if you are willing to bear the risk.

For the previous “unlimited upside” phrasing:
Nah, unlimited downside but limited upside. A stock can not go lower than 0. You can increase your upside by using more leverage but that increases the downside too and is limited by the amount of leverage you can acquire.

That’s one of the reasons why going long is so much easier than shorting. Shorting requires timing along with more risk management while going long “only” requires not needing the money for the duration of the investment (which, granted, also requires risk management and luck).

4 Likes

Ummmh… 2.01 CHF a few minutes ago…

1 Like

…including the next few days. New bottom: 1.7275 CHF.

1 Like

So the other bank would takeover the balance sheet? Good luck!
(By the way 1.68 CHF is the new low :dizzy_face:)

Price action is brutal. less than 1.60 now.
I feel bad for all the employees who have so many shares as part of the salary payout. Painful.

1 Like

you were right :smiley: another -30%

1 Like

Only those with high salaries have shares as part of their salary payouts. Don’t feel bad for them.

4 Likes

Usually above directors

1 Like

Another example for selling stock options (of the company you work in) as soon as possible…

don’t touch it with a long stick.
1.00 CHF is another 30% down.

3 Likes

But now it’s 1.928, +24% above the current low (1.555)!
A missed opportunity :smiling_imp: ?

1 Like

catching a bear market rally’s timing is a fool’s errand.
CS’s bear market is sustained for the last 5 years with an impressive 90% down.

1 Like

Who on earth would swallow Credit Suisse at this point?

If anything, I’d bet they’ll be carved up into pieces - with you as a shareholder ending up owning (part of) the bad (i.e. worthless) parts of the company. Even if they’re going to be restructured or recapitalised in some other, you’ll be holding the bag.

Your best bet with that, IMO, is honestly that they’ll survive as a whole and independently - possibly by government bail-out.

3 Likes

The SNB anounced it will provide liquidity to Credit Suisse if that becomes necessary. The also state, together with FINMA, that CS meets the regulatory standards for both capital and liquidity requirements: https://www.snb.ch/en/mmr/reference/pre_20230315/source/pre_20230315.en.pdf

I don’t know what to think of this one. One one hand, CS is likely systemically important and its fall could break the system. On the other one, if you find “material weakness” in your previous financial reportings, that is a very meaningful failure of the people actually paid to do these reportings that relies on either incompetency or actual malice and this absolutely has to bear consequences or what we are actually saying is that if your bank is systematically important, you can put whatever you want in your financial reportings and as long as they look genuine enough for you not to get caught right on the spot, you’re good.

I’d really want to learn more about the actual situation but can only find one line articles on the topic (that is, there is only one line of actual information and no details provided). It is, in particular, not clear to me what entities would be subject to what (Credit Suisse (Schweiz) AG vs Credit Suisse AG vs Credit Suisse Group AG).

2 Likes

More information in Credit Suisse (Schweiz) AG’s annual report, page 10 (emphasis mine): Credit Suisse (Schweiz) AG – Credit Suisse

Credit Suisse Group’s management has made an evaluation and assessment of the internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2022. Based upon its review and evaluation, the Group’s management has concluded that, as of December 31, 2022, the Group’s internal control over financial reporting was not effective as it did not design and maintain an effective risk assessment process to identify and analyze the risk of material misstatements in its financial statements. As Credit Suisse (Schweiz) AG relies on the Group’s internal control framework designed for the preparation of the financial statements, the Board of Directors of Credit Suisse (Schweiz) AG concluded that this material weakness could result in misstatements of account balances or disclosures that would result in a material misstatement to the annual financial statements of Credit Suisse (Schweiz) AG that potentially would not be prevented or detected.

As a consequence, the statutory auditor PricewaterhouseCoopers AG (PwC) has noted that Credit Suisse (Schweiz) AG did not design and maintain an effective risk assessment process to identify and analyze the risk of material misstatements in its financial statements within this system.

Notwithstanding the existence of this material weakness in internal control over financial reporting, Credit Suisse (Schweiz) AG confirms that its financial statements as at December 31, 2022 comply with Swiss law as reflected in PwC’s report on those financial statements.

They are basically saying that there could have been fraud, that they don’t know if fraud has occurred and are laying the basis for reducing their liability in case it did occur. The auditing company (pwc) is also taking good care of distanciating itself of any statement made by the bank.

Looks very not reassuring to me.

On a side note:

“On January 1, 2023, a partial revision of the Swiss Federal Law on Banks and Savings Banks (Bank Law) became effective, which included changes to the Swiss deposit insurance guarantee program. Under the revised program, among other changes, the jointly guaranteed amount is now determined as the higher of CHF 6 billion or 1.6% of all protected deposits.”

It previously was CHF 6B, period. Seems like a step in the right direction, although 1.6% seems awfully low as a basis for calculation of the amount provisioned by the insurance guarantee program.

Edit: more words but not more details in Credit Suisse Group AG’s annual report, pages 50-51: Investor relations – Credit Suisse

I have only skimmed these reports, if anybody finds anything of substance worth mentioning and takes the time to do it, I’ll be very grateful to them.

4 Likes

To tell the truth, I don’t know who would have the balls to take a stand. I can imagine either UBS for some reason, a big American bank or even a French bank (let’s be crazy!).

I think CS will disappear one way or another and if it does happen, I would be happy if I could collect a few dozen francs. I prefer to be on the side of the pessimistic idealists. Time will tell if this was a good idea :smile:.

1 Like