Credit Suisse (CS) made 15,400 loans. For the boss of the bank, CS is “robust”, even if the coronavirus crisis will leave its mark.
Urs Rohner, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Credit Suisse Bank. Keystone / archive
Credit Suisse (CS) made 15,400 loans totaling CHF 2.8 billion as part of the coronavirus crisis. The new system worked well, Urs Rohner, chairman of the bank’s board of directors, told Radio SRF’s “Saturday Show”.
Small businesses benefited in total by 2.2 billion. These credits, limited to 500,000 francs, are 100% guaranteed by the Confederation. The rest of the sum, some 600 million francs, represents loans. The Confederation only guarantees the latter at 85%.
It was important to make money available quickly and to avoid liquidity bottlenecks. The transactions were relatively informal, possible in 15 minutes, said the boss of the bank. This shows that in Switzerland, something can be achieved very quickly, even in a crisis, if everyone pulls the same string, said Mr. Rohner.
CS is “robust”
The SC also encountered black sheep who attempted to defraud a loan, but they accounted for only 0.4 percent of the cases. These people embellished the sales figures to get a loan.
According to his boss, CS is “robust”, even if the coronavirus crisis will leave its mark. We must wait for development in the coming quarters. Companies in Switzerland are well capitalized and have reserves, activity continues relatively normally. Internationally, however, the situation is different. The bank should make arrangements, nuanced Urs Rohner.
Internally, the latter made no secret that downsizing would be necessary in certain sectors in the medium term. The crisis has accelerated the digitization of certain activities, he justifies.
By publishing its quarterly results on Thursday, UBS also took stock of the loans granted. So far, the other big bank has granted more than 21,000 loans guaranteed by the Confederation to small and medium-sized Swiss companies affected by the coronavirus. The total volume of these loans is 2.5 billion.
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Posted: 05.30.2020, 1:47 p.m.-
