maybe all traders should raise remedy tickets and document how they are doing their work? So it can be cross checked. This happens where i work and its going well. I raise tickets for various items like: answering calls, speaking to people, and when replying to mails. everything is logged.

Karaw, Hastings,

the losses is a result of how the business is controlled and run. if there is no proper discipline from the top, don't expect the mid/back office guys to catch everything. CS top management need to change the way business is run and controlled, there might be losses there traders are undermining..

Bill, UK, Blamingham

i work in front office and handle the reconciliations with a back office system and the positions are checked, why was this not happening here !

buddy, london, UK

Banks are really another form of manufacturing company - they design, make, distribute and sell products.

The core problem is that often their senior management teams are ill-equipped to manage their increasingly complex businesses.

Imagine the response if our cars, airfcraft or comptuers frequently falied to perform due to poor design or manufacuring.

Time to make some fundamental top down changes perhaps?

chris claridge, singapore,

I feel sorry for the employees who are having their pay and bonuses cut. They deserve better.

Deway, Graves end,

'synthetic collateralised debt obligations are a type of complex financial instrument' No they're not. They're just debts.

eric campbell, harrogate, uk

It's incredible, the timing of it all. Just a week after announcing such great results! Not sure whose eyes they were trying to pull the wool over.

Trewah , Hendon,

i too never have heard of the front office doing the marks. they have an incentive to use the wrong markets, since their bonus depends on it.

the only exception is really illiquid or exotic stuff, in which case the back office sometimes asks research for help. but traders? fugetaboutit!

Roberto, New York,

As a trada myself, I know the pressure they're under to produce figures that portray the firm in a good light, and leave announcing bad news til as late as possible. But it looks like it's going to be another year of cost cutting for Credit Suisse.

Viwah, Modhvadia, India

To me as a financial luddite, its really starnge that the bosses make literally millions a year but manage to always slip out of these, errr, sticky situations untouched. When times are good they make hay and when times are bad they fire the butler. As with the French mess, the bosses always come out smelling like roses. How about soem accountability? If these people were politicians they would be, oh sorry, also blaming someone else.

GK, Calgary, Canada

I could not agree more with " d young" comments , eventhough the finance, product control, middle office and , market risk p teams may propose a provisions for the business each month , the front office usually pushes it back so aggresively( in this case the global head of trading) that most middle to back office personnel could not do anything about it.. Even if there are internal controls in place, front office guys need to have the discipline to abide them and there has to be pre trades approval before front office can take on such risky positions.

wickedpc, UK, London

Does Credit Suisse have a casino license?

nigel foster, Ryde, uk

In banks and financial institution, all pricing and valuation is done by the front office. One may argue that there is a clear conflict here, and their price drive the profit and loss - that is why there is a strong control by people in finance, product control, middle office, market risk to make sure that the prices are reasonable.

In practice, the controls can be weak - and traders can be very aggresive and quick to accuse others as "stupid" and "don't understand their business" when their valuation is challenged. A trader can be paid upwards of a million pounds a year, and the product controller - around £50k-£75k - this income differential makes controllig the front office difficult in practice.

d young, London, England

I wonder how much of these traders positions and revaluations were done on Excel Spreadsheets and what controls were in place (or not in this case)?

Also I thought Mifid and Sox was to tighten pricing and revaluations?

I am gobsmacked!

Dave, London, UK

"global head of synthetic collateralised debt obligations "...


market are a mistery!

riccardo, brussels,

Since when should traders rather than middle- or back-office be revaluing positions?

Simon Bee, Wokingham, UK

"Mark to Market", eh, "If it looks like Enron, smells like Enron, it must be Enron"!

jim johnson, framingham, USA

Have they tried the betting shop? It's safer.

gwilym rhys-jones, costa del sol, spain