The Wall Street Journal reports that Credit Suisse announced a $2.1bn first-quarter loss Thursday, after an additional $5.2bn in writedowns related to mortgage-backed securities and LBO loan provisions.

The loss, which came in much larger than expected, was the first quarterly negative earnings Credit Suisse has posted for almost 5 years. CEO Brady Dougan said in a statement:  'Our first-quarter results are clearly unsatisfactory. However, during the quarter, we substantially reduced our exposures to affected areas and we will continue to do so in a disciplined fashion. Other than the areas affected directly by the credit crisis, most of our businesses performed well, with revenues near, or in some cases above, those in the first quarter of 2007. This demonstrates the benefit of our diversified global platform. Our global Wealth Management and Swiss Corporate & Retail Banking businesses sustained their strong growth momentum, with steady inflows, and in Investment Banking we had solid results in most of our businesses other than leveraged finance and structured products'.

The Independent reports that the chairman and CEO of Citigroup were 'heckled and booed' at the firm's annual shareholder meeting Tuesday. Dozens of shareholders, including staff who were fired in a bid to cut costs, gave Vikram Pandit and Sir Win Bischoff a tough time, berating them for things like former CEO Chuck Prince's multi-million dollar exit package, the $38bn in asset writedowns and the company poor stock performance.

Bloomberg reports that Merrill Lynch has raised $9.55bn selling bonds and preferred shares in order to beef up its balance sheet.

The Financial Times reports that Sir Fred Goodwin's days appear to be numbered as CEO at Royal bank of Scotland. Unidentified investors are now said to be pushing for a definite succession plan, and are thought to be stressing that Fred needs to step down within a year. Goodwin and his board were also given a tough time at their bank's annual meeting this week. One shareholder, angry about the level of asset writedowns and the performance of the share price, said: 'You guys were paid as though you were superhuman, and it's very clear that you are not'.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Societe Generale has said that Jean-Pierre Mustier, the head of the firm's corporate and investment banking division, is going nowhere - despite that $7.8bn rogue trading loss taking place on his watch. A spokesperson for the bank said that speculation that Mustier is to leave the bank in a few weeks is 'rumours based on fantasy'. The newspaper also reports that UniCredit has warned that it will make significant writedowns in the first-quarter, and that Wachovia Corp. CEO Ken Thompson had to face down a call for him to step down at the bank's annual meeting earlier this week. Wachovia reported a $393m loss in the first-quarter, and cut its dividend.

Reuters reports that Legg Mason portfolio manager Bill Miller has said that his Value Trust Fund has put in another awful quarterly performance, but that he feels that the worst is over. 'We will do better from here', he said. The news agency also reports that Schroders' first-quarter pretax profits came in more than halved at $83.7m, after the firm wrote down some $66m on investments. Barclays has also come out and said that first-quarter profits at Barclay Capital and Barclays Global Investors are 'well below' those seen in the same period last year, although the bank did confirm that both units remain profitable.

Finally, The Financial Times reports that Deutsche Bank is preparing for another leverage loan sale in order to free up additional capital. The newspaper also reports that German financial markets regulator, BaFin, is currently investigating a Deutsche Bank employee in connection with possible insider trading in shares in German lender IKB. A Deutsche spokesperson has confirmed that the trading involved client orders, and did not originate from its any of prop traders.

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