Credit Suisse Group has reported a 24% increase in its net income attributable to shareholders for the second quarter 2020 (2Q20) at CHF1.16bn ($1.28bn) compared to CHF937m ($1bn) made in the same quarter in the year before.
The Swiss banking group said that the 2Q20 net income is the highest second quarter in a decade.
In the preceding quarter, that is 1Q20, the net income attributable to shareholders for the banking group was CHF1.31bn.
For the first half of 2020 (1H20), Credit Suisse reported net income attributable to shareholders of CHF2.47bn, which is up by 47% compared to CHF1.68bn made in 1H19.
The net revenues for the Swiss banking firm increased by 11% from CHF5.58bn in 2Q19 to CHF6.19bn in 2Q20. For 1H20, the net revenues moved up by 9% to CHF11.97bn compared to 1H19.
There was a slight increase of 2% year-over-year in the total operating expenses of the banking group in 2Q20 at CHF4.34bn.
Credit Suisse’s Swiss Universal Bank (SUB) unit saw its 2Q20 net revenues increase by 2% to CHF1.5bn compared to CHF1.47bn earned in the same quarter in 2019.
However, the international wealth management (IWM) business saw a 7% decline in its net revenues at CHF1.27bn in the reported quarter against the figure of CHF1.37bn announced in the corresponding quarter in 2019.
In the investment banking and capital markets, Credit Suisse witnessed a 55% surge in net revenues from CHF454m made in 2Q19 to CHF702m in 2Q20.
Credit Suisse Group CEO comments on the 2Q20 results
Credit Suisse Group CEO Thomas Gottstein said: “With an RoTE of 11.0% for the second quarter and 12.0% for the first six months 2020, we delivered on our pre-COVID-19 ambition to achieve an RoTE of approximately 10% for 2020, confirming the resilience of our integrated business model as a leading wealth manager with strong global investment banking capabilities.
“Amid the turbulent market environment, we were also able to improve our CET1 ratio in the second quarter to 12.5%. Having achieved strong results in the first half of the year, we would like to take this opportunity to reaffirm our strategy and to announce several structural changes, which we will implement going forward.”
Among the structural changes announced by the Swiss banking group are creation of a globally integrated investment bank to build a client-centric global platform, launching of a new function called Sustainability, Research & Investment Solutions (SRI), and continued allocation of nearly two thirds of capital to wealth management.
