Credit Suisse makes US loss on US$885m trading hit

By Steve Slater

LONDON, Nov 16 (IFR) - Credit Suisse (LSE: 0QP5.L - news) lost almost US$1bn in its US operations last quarter, one of five major foreign banks to lose money on their US trading desks, according to results from the country released for the first time this week.

Credit Suisse's US business reported a loss of US$942m in the three months to the end of September, after losing US$885m on its trading desk, the bank said in filings released by the US Federal Reserve.

Credit Suisse said on Wednesday the overall US loss reflected the impact of the bank's restructuring, including in its non-core unit. That included writedowns and sales of assets in its distressed debt portfolio and litigation provisions. The bank said its core US businesses were stable and profitable, as shown in its second and third-quarter results.

Credit Suisse stepped up the restructuring of its business this year, and much of that involves its US business and assets.

The US filing showed that in the trading assets, it lost US$520m in interest rate exposures and US$460m in credit exposures.

Major overseas banks had to report third-quarter results for their US bank holding companies to the Fed last week, after being forced to set up separately capitalised holding companies for their US businesses. The Fed released the details this week, providing insight on staff numbers, revenues, expenses and profits.

Credit Suisse's loss was in stark contrast to Swiss rival UBS (LSE: 0QNR.L - news) , which reported the highest profit of any of the foreign banks for their US bank holding company. UBS said it made US$1.43bn net profit in the third quarter.

Credit Suisse was not alone in losing money. HSBC's US business lost US$442m in the period.

Nine other European and Canadian banks reported a profit for their US bank holding companies, but several joined Credit Suisse in reporting negative trading losses.

Deutsche Bank (LSE: 0H7D.L - news) , which is also restructuring its US operations, lost US$500m; Canada's Toronto Dominion lost US$60m; BNP Paribas (LSE: 0HB5.L - news) lost US$33m; and Barclays (LSE: BARC.L - news) lost US$10m.

The eight European and three Canadian banks reported the following details in their filings (in millions of US$):

BANK NET INCOME TRADING BROKERAGE INV BANK US

(OR LOSS) REVENUE FEES* +ADV** STAFF =========== ======== ======= ======= ======= ====== BARCLAYS 673.0 (10.0) 890.0 1,262.0 9,609 BBVA (LSE: 931474.L - news) 280.6 21.5 50.7 65.2 10,070 BNP PARIBAS 585.4 (32.8) 129.0 245.6 15,059 C. SUISSE (942.4) (885.3) 1,317.7 1,168.8 10,029 DEUTSCHE 635.0 (500.0) 411.0 896.0 8,409 HSBC (442.6) 264.6 182.1 367.1 12,652 SANTANDER 353.3 15.1 36.0 113.4 16,310 UBS 1,427.4 264.7 1,408.6 4,118.3 19,952 BMO 475.4 63.2 100.6 281.2 13,521 RBC (Other OTC: RBCI - news) 318.0 71.0 911.3 1,078.7 11,246 TD 1,318.7 (60.1) 53.4 158.4 25,973 (Source: Consolidated (Berlin: 28568634.BE - news) financial statements for bank holding companies FR Y-9C.) (Note (Stockholm: NOTE.ST - news) : *fees and commissions from securities brokerage; **investment banking, advisory and underwriting fees and commissions) (Reporting by Steve Slater)