Credit Suisse warns of ‘highly significant’ loss linked to hedge fund
The Swiss bank Credit Suisse says it may face a “highly significant” loss in the first quarter due to an unnamed American hedge fund client defaulting on margin calls.
In a statementExternal link issued on Monday, the bank said: “While at this time it is premature to quantify the exact size of the loss resulting from this exit, it could be highly significant and material to our first quarter results”.
A margin call is a request from a broker to add more money to an account to cover potential losses. Following the failure of the hedge fund to meet these margin commitments, Credit Suisse and a number of other banks are in the process of exiting these positions, the Swiss bank said.
Credit Suisse said it would provide an update on the matter in “due course”.
Its share price ended the day down 13.8% on the Swiss stock exchange.
Latest blow
Earlier, Japanese lender Nomura Holdings Inc. also warned of a “significant” potential loss from an unnamed US client.
According to various international media, the US hedge fund is Archegos Capital Management, which was founded by Bill Hwang.
The Swiss financial regulator, Finma, said on Monday that Credit Suisse had made it aware of its involvement in an “international hedge fund case” involving “several banks and locations internationally”.
The potential loss is the latest blow to Credit Suisse, which was hit by the recent Greensill scandal. The Swiss bank this month closed around $10 billion of supply-chain finance funds that bought notes from Greensill.
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Credit Suisse and Nomura warn of losses after Archegos-linked sell-off
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