Credit Suisse set to throw thousands out of work

Swiss banking giant Credit Suisse on Wednesdayday said it is aiming to cut an extra almost $1 billion in costs and slash thousands more jobs as it beefs up an ongoing restructuring programme.

Credit Suisse's new chief executive Tidjane Thiam had in October announced a sweeping overhaul of Switzerland's second largest bank, shaving off excesses in its investment bank and refocusing on its private banking and wealth management units.

But the bank has become more ambitious since, now aiming to slash costs by 4.3 billion Swiss francs ($4.4 billion, 3.9 billion euros), up from a previous target of 3.5 billion, allowing it to drive "our absolute operating cost base below 18 billion Swiss francs by 2018", he said in a statement. This year alone, the bank is targeting 1.7 billion in cost savings, he said. The group said it would accelerate the restructuring of its Global Markets activities, which it said were hard-hit by "a high and inflexible cost base (that) was exacerbated by volatile market conditions and lower volumes" in the last quarter of 2015. The ramped-up restructuring of the unit will entail 2,000 additional job cuts, the bank said. The bank has already slashed 2,800 jobs of a total 6,000 lay-offs planned worldwide, it said.

"Our efforts aim at putting Credit Suisse in a position to generate capital and grow profitably in the medium and long term," Thiam said. "The measures we are taking to strengthen our capital base and reduce our operating costs will improve our resilience and flexibility going forward," he said.