Timeline: How Credit Suisse has evolved over 167 years

Timeline: How Credit Suisse has evolved over 167 years

Following is a timeline outlining the 167-year history of Credit Suisse Group, the Zurich-based bank that is in the middle of a restructuring to rebuild after a string of scandals, losses, and management upheavals.

The bank began a make-or-break weekend on Saturday after some competitors grew cautious in their dealings with the bank and as regulators urged it to pursue a deal with Swiss rival UBS.

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1856

Politician and business leader Alfred Escher founds Schweizerische Kreditanstalt (SKA) to finance the expansion of the railroad network and promote Swiss industrialization.

1870

SKA opens first foreign representative office in New York.

1876

The bank moves into new headquarters on Zurich’s Paradeplatz; its first branch outside Zurich opens in Basel nearly three decades later.

1934

First Boston becomes the first publicly held investment bank in the United States.

1939

SKA creates Swiss American Corporation (New York) to focus on the underwriting and investment business.

1962

SKA takes over White, Weld and Co AG in Zurich from U.S. investment bank White Weld, and renames it Clariden Finanz AG.

1964

SKA gets a license as a full-service bank in New York.

1977

Chiasso Affair money-laundering scandal leads to a historic loss and spurs the bank’s transition to an