Credit Suisse CEO Says Bank Has No Material SVB Credit Exposure

Credit Suisse Group AG isn’t at risk from the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, Chief Executive Officer Ulrich Koerner said Tuesday, after shares of the Swiss lender hit fresh lows this week.

(Bloomberg) — Credit Suisse Group AG isn’t at risk from the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, Chief Executive Officer Ulrich Koerner said Tuesday, after shares of the Swiss lender hit fresh lows this week.

“Our credit exposure to SVB in particular is not material,” Koerner said at the Morgan Stanley European Financials Conference.

Credit Suisse stock has lost almost a fifth of its value in the past four trading days, as the failure of three regional US lenders prompted concerns about banks’ vulnerability to rising interest rates. Silicon Valley Bank’s seizure Friday, the biggest US bank failure since the financial crisis, was precipitated by fleeing depositors and sent shock waves across the global financial system.

As a systemically important bank, Credit Suisse follows “materially different standards” in terms of capital strength, funding and liquidity, Koerner said. He said the lender had CET1 capital ratio of 14.1% in the fourth quarter and a liquidity coverage ratio of 144% that has since increased.

“The other point is, the volume of our term fixed income securities as part of our HQLA portfolio is absolutely not material,” he said, referring to the bank’s holdings of high-quality liquid assets. “And the exposure to interest rates is fully hedged on top of it.”

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