Breaking the Back of European Banks: Saudi Statement

Today, on Wednesday, European stock exchanges suspended trading in the shares of some banks, including Credit Suisse, after their decline, amid escalating fears of a repeat of the Silicon Valley bank failure scenario in Europe.

Shares of Credit Suisse fell on the Swiss Stock Exchange (SIX) to their lowest level ever, as they fell 27.32% to CHF 1.58 per share, according to Bloomberg, and the agency said it was the biggest one-day decline for bank shares.

And the media indicated that European stock exchanges temporarily suspended trading in the shares of some banks, with a sharp drop in the banking sector, and among the banking shares that were suspended were Credit Suisse, Societe Generale, Monte de Paschi and Monte de Paschi. UniCredit.

Shares of Credit Suisse collapsed to a new record high after the National Bank of Saudi Arabia, the largest shareholder of Credit Suisse, ruled out an injection of additional liquidity into it.

“It will not be possible to give the Swiss bank more liquidity, since the share of ownership in it cannot exceed 10% due to regulatory rules,” Ammar Al-Khudairi, the head of the National Bank of Saudi Arabia, told American media. He added, “Well, we can’t. We can’t because we can go beyond 10 percent.”

In exclusive statements to Al-Arabiya TV following the fall in shares, Al-Khudairi pointed out that his statements “about Credit Suisse were misinterpreted” and said the bank could not increase investment in Credit Suisse due to regulatory implications.

And yesterday, Swiss group Credit Suisse announced that it had found “significant weaknesses” in its reporting procedures for fiscal years 2021 and 2022 and said it intends to take action to correct them.

Credit Suisse said in its annual report that “the bank’s management has concluded that controls and disclosure procedures have not been successful.”

Source: agencies