Investment banking lifts Credit Suisse's second-quarter profit

ZURICH (REUTERS) - Credit Suisse's investment bank drove a one-third jump in second-quarter group earnings, while higher interest rates should help future profits at its private bank, the lender said.

The Zurich-based bank's normally stable wealth management arm has been rattled by a global crackdown on Swiss bank secrecy, with European clients withdrawing money to avoid being snared by tax-evasion probes. For the second straight quarter, Credit Suisse's more risky investment bank lifted group net profit, which rose to 1.05 billion Swiss francs (S$1.4 billion), a touch above the 1.02 billion francs forecast by analysts in a Reuters poll.

Like Wall Street rivals including Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan, Credit Suisse benefited from strong trading in stocks and bonds, more than doubling pre-tax investment bank profit from a year ago. Compared with the previous quarter, typically the strongest period for capital markets, pretax profit was down 42 per cent.

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