Credit Suisse hit by further $5 bln writedown

By Douwe Miedema

ZURICH (Reuters) - Credit Suisse (CSGN.VX: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) notched up a further 5.3 billion Swiss francs ($5.26 billion) of credit-linked writedowns but its core rich clients kept their money at the bank unlike those of rival UBS (UBSN.VX: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz).

Markets had stabilised in April but Credit Suisse was not counting on an improvement yet, it said on Thursday, and it was hard to say whether there would be any further writedowns on its risky investments.

"In this crisis, a number of times people have seen a light at the end of the tunnel and it has ended up being a train coming down the tracks," Chief Executive Brady Dougan told reporters on a conference call.

Credit Suisse has been hit by the credit crisis to a much lesser degree than its larger rival UBS (UBSN.VX: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Europe's largest casualty of the crisis, which on Wednesday said it would cut back its investment bank after heavy writedowns.

Net new money inflows into Credit Suisse's key wealth management business were 13.5 billion francs in the first quarter, confounding fears that problems in its investment bank were spreading into its key rich clients business.

Inflows in Switzerland were 5.3 billion francs in the period, in contrast to UBS which has said private clients have been pulling out money in Switzerland.

Wealthy clients are easily irked by negative headlines mentioning their banks and smaller banks in Switzerland, which have no exposure to investment banking, have been saying they are benefiting as UBS suffers.

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