Credit Suisse is in crisis

Bank stocks, already reeling from two large bank failures in the past week, were under pressure on Wednesday as the sharp drop of Credit Suisse. Shares of the Swiss lender fell more than 20% after the chairman of its biggest backer — the Saudi National Bank — said it won’t provide further financial support. On Tuesday, the institution announced that it had found “material weakness” in its financial reporting process from prior years.

The Guardian reports,´´the bank is in the process of a major restructuring plan, meant to stem major losses, which ballooned to 7.3bn Swiss francs (£6.6bn) in 2022, and revive operations hampered by multiple scandals over the past decade involving alleged misconduct, sanctions busting, money laundering and tax evasion.´´

Long story short, there is a loss of confidence in the bank and this is leading to additional fears of contagion in the global banking arena which is benefitting the Gold price on derisking as well as dialed-back expectations for central bank tightening.