By Noele Illien and Stefania Spezzati
ZURICH (Reuters) -Credit Suisse has repaid the liquidity backed by the Swiss government, Finance Minister Karin Keller-Sutter said in an interview with Swiss broadcaster SRF aired late on Wednesday.
The bank so far has not disclosed how much it had borrowed under the so-called public facility backstop (PLB) – part of an emergency lifeline Swiss authorities extended to the bank in March as it struggled with cash outflows.
A person familiar with the matter told Reuters the bank had borrowed 70 billion Swiss francs under the 100 billion Swiss franc ($112.50 billion) scheme. Keller-Sutter said the funds drawn from the facility had now been fully repaid.
Credit Suisse said in its first-quarter earnings report in April that it used funds from the Swiss National Bank, including loans supported by default guarantees, without detailing how much of which credit facilities it had used.
It said that the net borrowings from the SNB totalled 108 billion Swiss francs after it had repaid 60 billion francs in the first quarter.
Credit Suisse applied to the Swiss central bank for emergency liquidity assistance in mid-March in order to bridge an impending liquidity shortage, Reuters reported on May 18.
As part of the state-orchestrated rescue and takeover by rival bank UBS which followed shortly after, it was given access to over 200 billion francs in liquidity support, 100 billion of which was backed by the government.
The bank also reported in April first-quarter outflows of 61 billion Swiss francs. It said that as of April 24 the outflows have moderated but not reversed.
Credit Suisse came close to falling below minimum levels of cash held at the SNB days before its forced takeover by UBS, Reuters reported in May.
($1 = 0.8889 Swiss francs)
($1 = 0.8889 Swiss francs)
(Reporting by Noele Illien and Stefania Spezzati;Editing by Jason Neely and Tomasz Janowski)
