Crédit Suisse shares “melt” and raise concerns about banks

Shares of Credit Suisse operated strongly on Wednesday (15), accentuating investor concerns about the financial health of the banking sector, after the collapse of the US bank SVB and other smaller institutions.

The Swiss bank’s shares lost more than 30% of their value, reaching the lowest levels in history and causing falls in stock exchanges around the world – in Brazil, the main B3 index fell by almost 2% and the dollar rose , sold for over R$ 5.30.

In an interview with Bloomberg Television, economist Nouriel Roubini said that an eventual collapse of Credit Suisse would amount to a “Lehman Brothers moment”, referring to the collapse of the US bank that triggered the global financial crisis of 2008-09.

Nicknamed “Doctor Catastrophe”, Roubini is one of the economists who predicted that recession. In his assessment, Credit Suisse may be “too big to fail”, but also “too big to save”.

On Wednesday (14), the bank reported having detected “material weaknesses” in its internal control over financial reporting, which would not be effective, which according to the institution applies both to the position at the end of 2022 and at the end of 2021.

Credit Suisse chairman Axel Lehmann told a conference in Saudi Arabia that the bank’s capital and balance sheet are “strong” and that “we are all ready to solve the problems”. According to him, the possibility of any government assistance to the bank “is not a typical one”.

Meanwhile, Credit Suisse’s largest individual shareholder, the Saudi National Bank, has declared that it cannot increase its stake in the bank due to regulatory concerns. The Saudi bank bought almost 10% of the Swiss bank last year, and said it cannot expand its stake beyond that.