Tidjane Thiam has been liberally swinging his axe at Credit Suisse this year, but no matter how hard the chief executive tries to attack costs it is mostly revenue that seem to be disappearing.

The Swiss bank squeaked into profit in the third quarter when expectations were for a loss, but with a return on equity of just 0.4% for the quarter and a loss for the year so far, investors are still a long way away from getting a decent return.