The bank said the move represented an "important step towards a managed exit from the Securitized Products business, which is expected to significantly de-risk the investment bank and release capital to invest in Credit Suisse's core business.", after battling sluggish investment banking revenues and litigation costs relating to a slew of legacy compliance and risk management failures.
Central to the restructure plan was an offload of risk-weighted assets , with around $10 billion of these accounted for by Tuesday's transactions, the bank said. "The approximately USD 20 billion of remaining assets, which will generate income to support the exit from the SPG business, will be managed by Apollo under an investment management relationship with an expected term of five years to be entered into at the first closing," Credit Suisse added in a statement.
"Under the terms of the transactions contemplated with Apollo, Credit Suisse's CET1 capital ratio is expected to be strengthened by the release of RWAs and the recognition, upon closing, of the premium paid by Apollo, whereby the final amount will depend on discount rates and other transaction-related factors."
Fr Canoogan opines: this is setting off alarm bells...a dip into the 2008 archives came up with a danger signal...it was securitized products that started that whirlpool of despair, with Leaman Bro's spinning into oblivion...now maybe it's a Swiss Avalanche?