Credit Suisse considers early issue of coco bonds

The CEO of Credit Suisse hopes to begin issuing billions of dollars in contingent-capital bonds in the next year to strengthen the bank's balance sheet ahead of ahead of Basel III, the Financial Times reports.

Credit Suisse has until 2019 to meet new contingent capital rules under Basel III, but Brady Dougan says the investment bank aims to issue the ‘coco bonds' to assure investors and regulators there is enough demand for the debt. Cocos work by converting debt into equity or other capital in the event a bank begins to struggle financially. "I certainly hope that during the course of next year we can do something," he says. "We have actually received a lot of reverse inquiries that said ‘If you're going to issue these we'd be very interested in looking at them'." The FT reports the ban...