Credit Suisse’s global wealth management business was hit by clients drawing down money to pay off debt after the Lehman Brothers failure, with net new money growing by just SFr2bn in the last quarter of 2008.

New money flows for the entire year were SFr42.3bn, down SFr8bn from the year before. Despite the growth of new money substantially falling in the fourth quarter, Credit Suisse performed much better than its big Swiss rival UBS, which saw outflows of more than SFr111bn from its wealth units last year.