Citing the bank's 'internal estimates,' Swiss Sunday newspaper Sonntag said customers had lost 'between 900 and 1,000 million francs (S$1.3 billion).' Credit Suisse spokesman Jan Vonder Muehll was reported confirming that clients had lost money, but he did not specify the amount.

Mr Muehll also stressed: 'Credit Suisse did not actively recommend or sell Bernard Madoff investment products.' None of funds launched by Credit Suisse contained Madoff funds, he added.

Credit Suisse in mid-December said it did not have 'material' exposure to the Madoff scam.

The country's largest bank UBS also said then that the exposure of its investment bank unit to the scam was 'limited and insignificant.'

Last Sunday, however, Swiss newspaper NZZ am Sonntag reported that a Luxembourg-based fund run by UBS had invested 1.4 billion francs in Madoff funds.

Madoff, a 70-year-old Wall Street veteran, is alleged by US prosecutors to have confessed to having defrauded investors of US$50 billion (S$72 billion) in a giant pyramid scheme that collapsed in the global financial crisis. -- AFP