Credit Suisse today admitted it is unlikely to make a profit in the first quarter as it uncovered SwFr2.86 billion (£1.4 billion) in asset writedowns, which the bank partly blamed on "intentional misconduct" by a group of traders.

The bank, which until recently appeared to have shrugged off the worst of the ongoing financial crisis, said SwFr1.18 billion of the writedowns related to the fourth quarter last year with the remaining SwFr1.68 billion impacting first-quarter earnings.

As a result, Credit Suisse's profits for the fourth quarter have been revised from SwFr789 million to SwFr540 million.

The bank also said: "In the light of the difficult market conditions in March, at this time, Credit Suisse believes it is unlikely to be profitable in the first quarter."

Credit Suisse also revealed today that it will pay Brady Dougan, its chief executive who took over from Oswald Grübel, who retired last February, a total SwFr22.3 million, 90 per cent of which was a bonus payment made up of cash and shares.

Last month it emerged that a team of London-based traders, led by Kareem Serageldin, Credit Suisse's global head of synthetic collateralised debt obligations (CDOs), had been suspended as the bank conducted an investigation of a number of trades.

Credit Suisse said today: "Following its revaluation review, Credit Suisse has determined that the pricing errors were, in part, the result of intentional misconduct by a small number of traders.

"These employees have been terminated or have been suspended and are in the process of being disciplined under local employment law."

The bank said: "The review also found that the controls put in place to prevent or detect this activity were not effective."

But a source at the bank said this should not be seen as in any way similar to the €4.9 billion (£3.8 billion) rogue trading scandal at Société Générale that emerged in January.

Mr Dougan said the incident was "unacceptable and does not meet the standards” required by the bank.

He said: “Credit Suisse continues to be well positioned through the challenging and volatile markets that have existed since the middle of 2007 ... Our private banking business continues to perform well.”

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