Credit Suisse profit soars as overhaul pays off

Zurich: Swiss banking giant Credit Suisse on Wednesday posted a big jump in net profit for the first quarter, as a major overhaul under way since 2015 delivers firm results. For the first three months of 2018, the bank, Switzerland’s second biggest after UBS, announced a year-on-year jump in profits of 16 per cent to 694 million Swiss francs (Dh2.5 billion, $706 million, €579 million). The bank began to refocus its activities on wealth management over merchant banking. The revamp, launched after French-Ivorian businessman and former politician Tidjane Thiam took the reins as CEO in 2015, has also involved a “relentless focus on efficiency”, Credit Suisse said in a statement. “We have reshaped Credit Suisse in less than three years,” the statement said.

“Quarterly costs [were] reduced to [their] lowest level” in five years, the statement said.