Credit Suisse writes down assets

Credit Suisse has said it wrote down 2.4bn Swiss francs ($2.1bn; £1.3bn) of assets in the third quarter of 2008.

The Swiss banking giant said its outlook for the fourth quarter was cautious and the market environment remained challenging.

The bank has written down billions of Swiss francs in assets since the beginning of the sub-prime crisis.

It confirmed a third-quarter loss of 1.26bn Swiss francs, against net income of 1.3bn Swiss francs a year earlier.

A pre-tax loss of 3.2bn Swiss francs in its investment banking division reflected the write-downs in the "leveraged finance and structured products business and exceptionally adverse trading conditions in September", a statement from the bank said.

"We expect the market environment to remain challenging and we are cautious with regard to the outlook for the fourth quarter," said Brady W. Dougan, chief executive officer.

Its private banking business has seen strong inflows of new assets, he added.

The private banking division reported income before taxes of 789m Swiss francs, down 39% from a year earlier.

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