Litigation costs weigh on Credit Suisse's Q4
GENEVA (AP) — Litigation costs weighed on Switzerland's second-largest bank, Credit Suisse, in the fourth quarter.
The bank reported Thursday a net profit of 267 million francs ($295 million) for the October-December period, compared with 263 million francs a year earlier. The flat performance came as the company set aside 339 million francs to deal with ongoing mortgage litigation — pushing its investment bank unit to a pretax loss — and made a further provision of 175 million francs for costs related to a U.S. investigation of alleged tax evasion.
The report disappointed investors and Credit Suisse shares dropped 1.6 percent to 26.61 francs in early trading in Zurich.
For the full year, Credit Suisse said its net profit more than doubled to 3.07 billion francs from 1.35 billion francs in 2012.
The company is proposing a dividend for last year of 0.70 francs, down from the previous year's 0.75 francs.
