After a profit warning only last month, Credit Suisse ’s full-year results on Thursday should have been boring. Instead, the beleaguered Swiss bank had more bad news.
There were the pre-announced hits in the fourth quarter: a goodwill write-down of 1.6 billion Swiss francs, equivalent to $1.73 billion, mostly on the acquisition of U.S. brokerage Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette way back in 2000, and 436 million francs in litigation costs related to a host of historical matters.
