CREDIT SUISSE GROUP AG ZURICH (Reuters) - Credit Suisse (>> Credit Suisse Group AG) is already benefiting from measures taken to counter the strong Swiss franc, its deputy finance chief said on Tuesday.
The Zurich-based bank outlined measures last month to cope with the surge in the Swiss currency after the central bank abandoned its cap against the euro on Jan. 15.
"The financial performance so far this quarter has been consistent with our comments at the Q4 announcement on Feb. 12," Charlotte Jones, Credit Suisse's head of group finance, said at a Morgan Stanley (>> Morgan Stanley) conference in London.
"We've seen a good initial impact of the measures implemented in response to the adverse Swiss franc environment, offsetting a slower start to the year in our asset management business."
In its fourth-quarter earnings release, Chief Executive Brady Dougan said year-to-date profitability of the bank was in line with last year.
Jones also told the conference that accelerated efforts to reduce the bank's balance sheet could dent revenue by about 300 million Swiss francs (210 million pounds). Credit Suisse posted net revenue of 25.8 billion francs in 2014.
Along with its full-year earnings last month, Credit Suisse detailed plans to reduce its balance sheet by up to 70 billion francs more than outlined previously to boost its leverage ratio, a measure of a bank's capital against total assets.
The Swiss government said in February that it would lay out tougher capital requirements for Credit Suisse and cross-town rival UBS (>> UBS Group AG) by the end of the year as part of efforts to protect the banks from future crises.
(Reporting by Joshua Franklin; Editing by Pravin Char and David Goodman)
