In nearly five years, Switzerland’s second-biggest bank has never reported a quarterly loss. With the spotlight about to swing from its chief rival UBS – the largest Swiss bank, struggling though a flurry of subprime troubles – to its own balance sheet tomorrow, Credit Suisse must now show how it’s taking similar heat. (Not to mention the added disadvantage of financial havoc caused by a handful of rogue traders.)

Credit Suisse Group, Switzerland's second-biggest bank, may report the first quarterly loss in almost five years on writedowns linked to deteriorating credit markets and securities that had been intentionally mispriced.

Credit Suisse will probably post a first-quarter net loss of 594 million Swiss francs ($593 million) tomorrow, compared with a 2.73 billion-franc profit a year earlier, according to the median estimate of 14 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Markdowns by the Zurich-based bank may amount to 5 billion francs, analysts said.

Chief Executive Officer Brady Dougan announced on March 20 that the bank would probably have a loss after "a small group'' of traders mispriced securities and credit markets worsened. The company's losses have been dwarfed by UBS AG, its larger Swiss rival, which said on April 1 it probably lost about 12 billion francs in the first three months of the year.

"The bank hasn't covered itself in glory but it's certainly not the worst performer,'' said Matthew Clark, an analyst at Keefe Bruyette & Woods in London with a "market perform'' rating on Credit Suisse. "They're facing revenue headwinds but the franchise shouldn't be too much damaged by writedowns.''

Credit Suisse dropped 22 percent in Zurich trading this year, trimming its market value to 61.8 billion francs and pushing the stock in March to the lowest since December 2004. UBS has declined 32 percent so far in 2008.

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