Geneva (EFE).- Credit Suisse announced Thursday that it has borrowed 50,000 million Swiss francs (about 54,000 million dollars) from the Swiss central bank to “preemptively strengthen its liquidity.”
The bank experienced its blackest trading day on Wednesday, losing a quarter of its stock value and dropping its shares to a historically low level, below 2 Swiss francs, something never seen in its 167-year history, a collapse that it dragged down other European banking values.
“Credit Suisse is taking decisive steps to preemptively strengthen its liquidity with the intention of exercising its option to borrow from the Swiss National Bank (SNB) up to 50 billion Swiss francs ($54 billion) under a Credit Suisse Facility. Covered Loan, as well as a short-term liquidity service, which are fully guaranteed by high-quality assets,” the entity explained in a statement released early Thursday morning.
In addition, it announced “offers from Credit Suisse International to repurchase certain senior debt securities of OpCo for cash up to approximately 3 billion Swiss francs ($3.2 billion).”
The Swiss National Bank (SNB) has reported that it would provide liquidity to Credit Suisse
The Swiss National Bank (SNB) had informed on Wednesday that it would provide liquidity to Credit Suisse if necessary, but assured that this bank complies with the strict liquidity and capital requirements that are required of all Swiss financial institutions to guarantee their stability.
Credit Suisse also announced that it has made a cash tender offer in connection with ten US dollar-denominated senior debt securities for total consideration of up to $2.5 billion.
At the same time, Credit Suisse reported a separate cash tender offer in connection with four euro-denominated senior debt securities for total consideration of up to €500 million.
Both offerings are subject to various conditions set forth in the respective public offering memorandums. The offers will expire on March 22, 2023. “The transactions are consistent with our proactive approach to managing our overall liability composition and optimizing interest expense and allow us to take advantage of current trading levels to repurchase debt at attractive prices,” he added. the Swiss entity.
Credit Suisse – hit hard by mistrust in its management and in the banking system in general after the bankruptcy of three banks in the United States in one week – asked the SNB and the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) the day before to make a strong statement of support to calm the markets.
Both institutions issued a joint statement stating that despite the problems in the financial sector in the United States “there are no indications that point to a risk of contagion for Swiss entities.”
The large European stock markets experienced another episode of panic on Wednesday with the financial sector as the protagonist, the second this week, this time due to the refusal of the main shareholder of Credit Suisse to contribute more capital.
Milan fell 4.61%, Madrid, 4.37%; London, 3.83%; Paris, 3.58%; Frankfurt, 3.27%; and the Euro Stoxx 50 index, which groups the largest listed companies, 3.46%. They are the biggest decreases so far this year in all cases.
Wall Street, for its part, closed in mixed territory and the Dow Jones Industrials, its main indicator, lost 0.87% in a new volatile day in which the New York parquet was affected by the fall in Credit shares Swiss.
The main index of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, the Nikkei, fell 2% at the opening of the session on Thursday, also infected by the fall in European markets due to fears of a financial crisis after the collapse of two American banks.