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Bank slumps 24% after top shareholder rules out investing more
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European stocks decline amid a selloff in global banks
All it took was a few tough words from Credit Suisse Group AG’s biggest shareholder on Wednesday to spark a selloff that spread like wildfire across global markets.
Asked whether Saudi National Bank was open to further cash injections, Chairman Ammar Al Khudairy said “absolutely not.” It was a reminder about the precarious situation facing the Swiss bank just one day after its CEO, Ulrich Koerner, had sought to shore up investor confidence by pointing to signs of improvement in its business.
Credit Suisse’s shares plummeted 24% in the biggest one-day selloff on record. Its bonds fell to levels that signal deep financial distress, with securities due in 2026 dropping 20 cents to 67.5 cents on the dollar in New York. That puts their yield over 20 percentage points above US Treasuries, according to Trace.
For global investors still on edge after the rapid-fire collapse of three regional US banks, the growing Credit Suisse crisis provided a new reason to sell risky assets and pile into the safety of government bonds. Benchmark indexes in Europe sank more than 3% and