DECEMBER 4, 2008

Credit Suisse axes 11% of workforce

BMW Sauber sponsor Credit Suisse, Switzerland's second-largest bank, has announced that it is axeing 5,300 jobs and scrapping bonuses for its top executives after losing $2.5 bn in the last two months. This amounts to around 11% of the company's workforce. Credit Suisse has avoided having to get government aid, unlike its bigger rival UBS which needed a $59.2bn aid package, and appears to be in much better health than many of the world's financial institutions. The biggest victims of the crunch will be the company's investment bank, which will now be scaled back. The other job cuts are expected in asset management and private banking. It is not clear whether the cuts will affect the F1 sponsorship. There have been reports that the bank will leave F1 at the end of the year, but these have not been confirmed.