ZURICH (Reuters) - Credit Suisse Group (S:CSGN) said on Thursday business in the first quarter had been going well despite jitters over the coronavirus epidemic.
"Notwithstanding the COVID-19 pandemic and the resultant volatile market environment, profitability in 1Q 2020 has so far continued the strong year-on-year improvement trend as already noted in our 4Q 2019 earnings release," it said.
"Our return on tangible equity is above 10% for the first two months of the year, and our pre-tax income for the same period exceeds the 1.06 billion Swiss francs reported for the whole of 1Q 2019," Switzerland's second-biggest bank said in a statement ahead of a presentation at a Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) conference, echoing upbeat comments by peer UBS (S:UBSG) on Wednesday.