Credit Suisse's largest shareholder, Saudi National Bank, has ruled out providing further financial assistance to the Swiss bank. This was reported by Bloomberg citing an interview with the president of the Saudi National Bank, Ammar Al Khudairy, who when asked by Bloomberg TV about possible further support said that "the answer is absolutely no, for many reasons that go beyond the simplest regulatory and statutory reason".
The Saudi National Bank, 37% owned by the Saudi sovereign wealth fund, became Credit Suisse's largest shareholder at the end of last year after buying a 9.9% stake in the Swiss bank. The effect on the stock market was immediate: the stock lost 30%.
The stock is hitting an all-time low, with the cost of insolvency insurance at very high levels for investors. Credit Suisse credit default swap certificates are approaching the critical threshold of one thousand points, which indicates a serious danger to the Group's business continuity. In particular, the one-year certificates rose yesterday to 835.9 basis points, according to the CMAQ platform, on the highest all-time highs, and are worth 18 times the similar derivative securities of rival UBS and about 9 times those of Deutsche Bank.