Credit Suisse Pays Back Some Emergency Liquidity, Central Bank Data Suggests

Credit Suisse has already paid back some of the emergency liquidity offered by the Swiss National Bank (SNB), data suggested on Tuesday, signaling an ebbing of the liquidity crisis which triggered the lender's fall.

Sight deposits - cash held by commercial banks overnight with the SNB - fell by 31 billion Swiss francs ($34.3 billion) last week, data published by the central bank showed.

The drop was the second-biggest weekly decline on record, second only to when the SNB started mopping up market liquidity after it quit negative interest rates last September.

In recent weeks sight deposits have soared as Credit Suisse received emergency liquidity infusions to head off a bank run as nervous customers pulled out their cash.

The lender last month said it intended to borrow up to 50 billion francs from the SNB in a last-ditch attempt to save itself after confidence evaporated following a string of blunders.

Following a state-sponsored takeover by rival UBS, another 200 billion francs in liquidity was also made available by the SNB.

As a result sight deposits rose from 515 billion in mid March to peak at 567 billion francs as the SNB deposited the cash with Credit Suisse, an upward trend which reversed last week as sight deposits fell to 532 billion francs.

(Source: Reuters)