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March 16 (NBD) -- Credit Suisse, Switzerland's century-old lender, suffered a crisis on Wednesday, with its share price plunging as much as 30 percent and its one-year credit default swaption (CDS) nearing 1,000 basis points, a record high since 2003 and more than 14 times of its 20-year average.
At the close of trading on Wednesday, Credit Suisse crated 24.24 percent on the Zurich exchange, with a market value lower than CHF7 billion. After the collapse of confidence, Credit Suisse had planned to borrow up to CHF50 billion from the Swiss central bank and to repurchase certain OpCo senior debt securities for cash up to approximately CHF 3 billion.
In a statement on Thursday, Credit Suisse said the additional liquidity of up to CHF50 billion (about USD54 billion/CNY373 billion) would support the bank's core businesses and customers. Credit Suisse also announced that it is making a cash tender offer in relation to ten US dollar-denominated senior debt securities for an aggregate consideration of up to USD 2.5 billion.
Founded in 1856, Credit Suisse is one of the world's largest financial institutions. In addition, Credit Suisse is classified as a "global systematically important bank", along with more than 30 other banks including JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America.
Susannah Streeter, senior investment and markets analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, the UK's largest retail investment platform, told NBD in an email interview that Credit Suisse's statement on emergency liquidity from the Swiss central bank highlighted how fragile the bank has become. She believes that while the emergency liquidity of up to CHF50 billion has removed the fear of a bigger run on Credit Suisse and concerns about other institutions affected by its business, market tensions remain.
Wang Jiyue, a senior analyst at an investment bank told NBD in an interview that the Credit Suisse crisis is far more serious than SVB, as it has much poorer asset quality and a more systematically important banking role.