Prior to collapse, $68 billion withdrawn from Credit Suisse

LONDON: Collapsed banking giant Credit Suisse says 61.2 billion Swiss francs ($68.6 billion) left the bank in the first three months of the year.

The announcement gives an insight into the scale of the bank run that caused the 167-year-old lender to fail and triggered its state-backed rescue, the media reported.

It came as the bank reported what are expected to be its last ever financial results.

Its forced sale to rival Swiss bank UBS is expected to be completed soon.

Credit Suisse’s flagship wealth management division saw assets it managed drop to 502.5 billion francs at the end of March, almost 29 per cent lower than the same period last year, the bank said in a statement.

“These outflows have moderated but have not yet reversed as of April 24, 2023,” it added.

Credit Suisse clients started pulling money out of the bank after it was caught up in the market turmoil that followed the collapses of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank in the US in March, it was reported.

In Switzerland, authorities put together a rescue package for Credit Suisse.

It included more than 200 billion francs of financial guarantees and saw UBS agree to take over Credit Suisse.