Credit Suisse Posts Huge Losses, But Private Bank Is On Track

Credit Suisse notched up 5.3 billion Swiss franc ($5.26 billion) of credit-related write-downs in the first quarter, causing a bigger-than-expected loss, but its core rich clients business was on track.

Markets stabilized in April but the bank was not counting on an improvement yet, it said on Thursday, and it was hard to say whether there would be any further write-downs on its portfolio of risky investments.

"In this crisis, a number of times people have seen a light at the end of the tunnel and it has ended up being a train coming down the tracks," Chief Executive Brady Dougan told reporters on a conference call.

Credit Suisse has been hit by the credit crisis to a much lesser degree than its larger rival UBS, Europe's largest casualty of the crisis, which on Wednesday said it would cut back its investment bank after heavy write-downs.

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