Credit Suisse Shares Collapse to Fresh Record Lows

Credit Suisse (CS:US) shares were trading as much as 28% lower at one point during Wednesday’s trading session in Switzerland.

Wednesday’s selloff was triggered by comments from Saudi National Bank, whose chairman said the bank “absolutely” won’t provide additional funding to the embattled bank. Trading in CS stock was halted several times throughout the day as it traded below 2 Swiss francs for the first time ever.

“We cannot [provide additional funding] because we would go above 10%. It’s a regulatory issue,” Saudi National Bank Chairman Ammar Al Khudairy said on Wednesday.

He also added that CS may be able to survive the ongoing crisis without extra liquidity. Saudi’s central bank has a 9.9% stake in the company. Credit Suisse’s Chairman Axel Lehmann said:

“We are regulated, we have strong capital ratios, very strong balance sheet. We are all hands on deck. So that’s not the topic whatsoever,” he said.

The CS bloodbath spilled over to other European banks, with shares of companies like Societe Generale (SCGLY:US), Banco de Sabadell, UniCredit and Commerzbank (CRZBY:US) also sharply lower on Wednesday. 

"The sell-off in the banks now is broad-based which suggests to me that there has to be some kind of game-changing decisive action to reverse and stabilise the situation," the Exane analysts said in their note.

The sell-off also spilled over to U.S. banks with the likes of JPMorgan (JPM:US) threatening to hit fresh multi-year lows. In addition to the CS turmoil, the U.S. is also facing a crisis of its own following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SIVB:US).

Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren sold some Credit Suisse corporate bonds in October last year while Senator Tom Carper was trading corporate bonds in 2021.