Credit Suisse China says staff down 46%

Credit Suisse China says staff down 46%

Credit Suisse’s securities brokerage joint venture in China said its headcount would drop 46% in 2023, a year after Swiss authorities arranged a takeover to keep the firm from collapsing.

Credit Suisse Securities (China) Ltd said in an annual report dated Tuesday that the number of employees was 126 at the end of December, down from 234 a year earlier. Chinese companies made several rounds of layoffs last year in an effort to stem losses, Reuters has reported.

Swiss authorities are rushing to arrange the takeover of Credit Suisse by cross-town rival UBS, in the biggest bank merger since the 2008 global financial crisis. UBS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

After the merger was announced in March 2023, Credit Suisse put the China unit up for sale. The unit reported its operating loss narrowed to 199 million yuan ($27.5 million) last year from 255 million yuan in 2022.

Bloomberg News reported this month that UBS is in talks to gain full ownership of its China platform by swapping its stake in Credit Suisse’s onshore securities venture with a Beijing government investment fund.