Switzerland’s second-largest bank retains cautious outlook

Amid a surprise upturn in profit, Credit Suisse’s chief executive officer signalled that the bank will not let down its guard while marking progress on its turnaround strategy. “For us, the second quarter was a quarter of progress,” CEO Tidjane Thiam told journalists in a 45-minute webcast news conference on Thursday. “We see some evidence here that our strategy is gaining traction.” After two profit-losing quarters, the Zurich-based bank’s results for the April-June quarter were helped by a 7% decline in costs from a year ago, Thiam said. The results also were boosted by a 64% reduction in restructuring expenses from the first quarter. Credit Suisse said its net profit for the second quarter was CHF170 million ($172.5 million), down sharply with CHF1.05 billion in the same period of 2015. But analysts had been expecting a loss. Brexit ... and beyond Thiam, who took over the bank a year ago, has been trying to scale back investment banking to allow more capital ...