ZURICH: Ratings agencies Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s downgraded scandal-hit Credit Suisse on Tuesday, given the restructuring Switzerland’s second-biggest bank will have to undertake in a more challenging environment.

Moody’s downgraded the bank’s senior unsecured debt ratings by one notch from Baa1 to Baa2, and from A1 to A2 for its long-term senior unsecured debt, it said in a statement. “The negative outlook on these ratings has been maintained,” it said, following the “large financial losses” published by Credit Suisse last week.

The ratings agency justified its decision in view of the “more difficult macroeconomic and market environment” the bank will have to deal with in order to stabilise its investment banking business, which is showing signs of “market share erosion”.

“Stabilising the group under the leadership of a new board and senior executive team will require time,” the US agency said.

Last week Credit Suisse said it booked a quarterly net loss of 1.593bn Swiss francs ($1.65bn) in the period from April to June, wider than the loss of 273 million francs in the preceding three months and down from net profit of 253m francs in the second quarter of 2021.

Published in Dawn, August 3rd, 2022