Credit Suisse has identified “material weaknesses” in its reporting and controls procedures for the last two years in the latest blow to the scandal-hit lender.
The Swiss bank said the issues relate to the failure to design and maintain effective risk assessments in its financial statements.
In its annual report, it said: “Management did not design and maintain an effective risk assessment process to identify and analyse the risk of material misstatements in its financial statements.”
As a result, for 2021 and 2022, “the group’s internal control over financial reporting was not effective”.
Credit Suisse was forced to delay the publication of its annual report last week following a late-night phone call from US regulators who raised questions about its accounts.
The latest blunder comes after the Swiss regulator said on Monday that the bank was being “closely monitored” after bets that it could default on its debts hit a record high amid the fallout from the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank.
A new management team has embarked on a drastic overhaul of the beleaguered lender, which has lurched from crisis to crisis in recent years, suffering a series of costly mishaps that have driven its share price down more than 60pc in the past 12 months alone.
Last week the Swiss regulator closed an investigation into comments made by the bank’s chairman in December that customer outflows had “basically stopped”. However, in its annual report Credit Suisse revealed that customer outflows had stabilised to much lower levels but had not yet reversed.
Finma said there were no sufficient grounds for supervisory proceedings.
PwC, the bank’s auditor, said on Tuesday that “management did not design and maintain effective controls over the completeness and the classification and presentation of non-cash items in the consolidated statements of cash flows”.
Credit Suisse said bosses were developing a new plab to address the weakness, which included “strengthening the risk and control frameworks, and which will build on the significant attention that management has devoted to controls to date”.
It added: “Additionally, we will implement robust controls to ensure that all non-cash items are classified appropriately within the consolidated statement of cash flows.”
Source: finance.yahoo.com