[ by Melanie Gretchen ]

The Swiss bank reported on Thursday that net profit for the 3rd quarter declined 63% from the same period one year ago.  The bank took a large charge - 1 billion Swiss Francs - related to the value of its debt. 

Switzerland's central bank had raised concerns earlier this year that Credit Suisse might not have the cash to weather future financial problems.  Perhaps, then, it should be no surprise that net income fell to 254 million francs in the 3 months ended 9/30/12 from 683 million francs in the period a year earlier.

Here's what Credit Suisse has done recently to change course:

• Capital plan: Created a plan to raise 15 billion Swiss francs ($16 billion) in capital by
  • tapping existing shareholders for new investments and selling certain financial assets.
  • increasing its reserves by 12.8 billion francs by the end of the 3rd quarter
     
• Job cuts: Committed to finding additional cost savings totaling 1 billion francs by 2015, as it continued to streamline its operations and focus on its lucrative wealth management business. The bank's total expected cost savings now have reached 4 billion francs, including the previously announced elimination of 3,500 jobs.
   
• Regulatory changes: Increased its core Tier 1 ratio, a measure of a bank's ability to weather financial shocks, to 14.7% under Basel II.5, from 10% in 2011's Q3.
   
• Balance sheet adjustment: will reduce its balance sheet by around 13%, or 130 billion francs ($149 billion), by the end of next year.
   
• Assets: will target its risk-weighted assets for a cut of nearly 12%, to 180 billion francs ($192 billion), over the same period.

Credit Suisse CEO Brady Dougan had this to say about quarterly results:  "We have realigned our business to better meet the demands of a changed regulatory and market environment. We have further strengthened our capital base and have improved our balance sheet structure to meet future regulatory requirements."

For further details, go to [Dealbook, 10/25/12].