The beleaguered Swiss bank Credit Suisse wants to borrow up to 50 billion francs (50.7 billion euros) from the country's central bank. This was announced by the company on Thursday morning. This step was intended to strengthen the bank, whose stock market value had crashed the day before, it said.

The billions borrowed from the Swiss National Bank (SNB) were intended to support the core business and the transformation into a bank more oriented towards client interests, Credit Suisse continued. The borrowing is fully secured by first-class assets. In addition, the Bank is making offers for senior debt instruments against cash payment of up to three billion Swiss francs.

The move came after Swiss regulators pledged liquidity assistance to Credit Suisse. Credit Suisse is thus the first global systemically important bank since the financial crisis to receive a tailor-made lifeline.

The bank had recently come under massive pressure, its shares crashed on Wednesday in the meantime by more than 30 percent. At the close of trading, they were still down 24.24 percent. The reason for the panic was statements by the largest shareholder from Saudi Arabia that no more money would be made available to the ailing Swiss institute.

Credit Suisse is one of the 30 banks in the world that are classified as "too big to fail" because their insolvency would have a devastating effect on the global economy.