Credit Suisse Sees Sharp Jump in Q1 Profit

Swiss banking giant Credit Suisse on Wednesday said its first quarter profit rose sharply to 1.303 billion Swiss francs (1.1 billion euros, $1.38 billion) from 44 million francs a year ago.

The significant jump in net profit is largely because the bank was weighed down by an accounting loss on its own debt during the same period last year.

For the first quarter of this year, the bank said it had attracted 12 billion francs in new funds from clients.

The investment banking division's pre-tax earnings rose to 1.3 billion francs, up from 907 million.

Pre-tax profit in the asset management division meanwhile came to 881 million francs, down from 951 million last year.

The bank also reported cost savings of 2.5 billion francs, saying it was on track to meet its reduction target of 4.4 billion by the end of 2015.