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© Fabrice Coffrini/AFPSwiss central bank Credit Suisse
Saudi lender acquired a stake of almost 10% in Credit Suisse last year...

Credit Suisse lost almost a quarter of its value on Wednesday, dropping to a new record low after its largest investor said it could not provide the Swiss bank with more financial assistance.

"We cannot, because we would go above 10%. It's a regulatory issue," Saudi National Bank chairman Ammar Al Khudairy said on Wednesday.

The Saudi lender acquired a stake of almost 10% last year after taking part in Credit Suisse's capital raising and committed to investing up to 1.5 billion Swiss francs ($1.5 billion).


Broader equity markets fell sharply, reversing earlier gains, as Credit Suisse's drop by as much as 24% re-ignited some of the jitters among investors about the resilience of the global banking system after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank.

Speaking at a Morgan Stanley conference on Wednesday, Ralph Hamers, chief executive of Swiss rival UBS said the lender has benefited from recent market turmoil and seen money inflows:
"In the last couple of days as you might expect we've seen inflows. It is clearly a flight to safety from that perspective, but I think three days don't make a trend."
Credit Suisse on Tuesday published its annual report for 2022 saying the bank had identified "material weaknesses" in controls over financial reporting and not yet stemmed customer outflows.

Switzerland's second-biggest bank is seeking to recover from a string of scandals that have undermined the confidence of investors and clients. Customer outflows in the fourth quarter rose to more than 110 billion Swiss francs ($120 billion).

The shares fell below the 2-Swiss franc mark for the first time in Zurich as they headed for a seventh straight daily decline.

The cost of insuring the company's bonds against default shot up. Five-year credit default swaps on Credit Suisse debt widened to 574 basis points from 549 bps at last close, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence, marking a new record high.

Earlier this week, Credit Suisse CEO Ulrich Koerner told a conference that the bank's liquidity coverage ratio averaged 150% in the first quarter of this year - well above regulatory requirements.