Credit Suisse shares lost more than 20% on the Zurich Stock Exchange to a new record low, on a day when the Saudi National Bank, its main shareholder, said it would not give the Swiss entity more financial assistance to deal with its battered accounts.

The shares of the Zurich bank are trading for the first time below 2 Swiss francs (2.04 euros).

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Finance.

SVB invokes the ghost of Lehman Brothers 15 years later

  • Editor: PABLO PARDO (Correspondent)Washington

SVB invokes the ghost of Lehman Brothers 15 years later

For their part, European stock markets fell sharply on Wednesday, sunk by fears in the banking sector, which continues to suffer the effects of recent bankruptcies in the United States.

By 10.30 a.m. GTM, Paris lost 3.23%, Milan 3.48%, Madrid 3.09% and Frankfurt 2.50%.

Among the hardest hit stocks, Credit Suisse – in the storm for several months – lost more than 20% in the Swiss stock market, reports Afp.

The Swiss bank's share price was disrupted late in the morning, when they fell by a fifth and hit new record lows, Reuters reports.

The collapse, which comes after several very negative days for the bank, dragged by the stock market crisis caused by the collapse of the US bank SVB, coincides with statements by the president of the Saudi state bank, Ammar al Khudairy, announcing that there will be no major capital injections by the entity.

"We can't because we would exceed 10% (of the shareholding), it's a regulatory issue," he told Bloomberg.

The Saudi bank acquired last year that 10% of shares in the capital increase launched by Credit Suisse, an investment in which the Middle Eastern entity invested 1,500 million Swiss francs (1,530 million euros).

In 2022, the Zurich bank posted losses of 7,293 million Swiss francs (about 7,400 million euros) in 2022, 4.5 times more than in 2021.

Affected by its exposure to risky firms with financial problems such as Archegos or Greensill, Credit Suisse also suffered last year the withdrawal of liquidity worth 123,200 million Swiss francs (126,000 million euros).

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