Credit Suisse is raising $4 billion

Why banks are looking to spy movies for answers
Why banks are looking to spy movies for answers

Credit Suisse plans to raise $4 billion to help rebuild its finances after two years of layoffs and losses.

The Swiss bank will raise the fresh capital by issuing 380 million new shares. They will be priced at a roughly 30% discount.

The announcement came as the bank reported quarterly earnings that were stronger than analysts had expected. Revenue for the first quarter was up 19% compared to the same period last year.

Investors cheered the news and bid up the stock by nearly 3%.

The bank is still under pressure to improve its financial position after suffering a loss of 2.7 billion Swiss francs ($2.7 billion) in 2016, and paying out a massive penalty in the U.S.

In December, Credit Suisse (CS) agreed to pay a total of $5.3 billion to the Department of Justice to settle claims that it packaged and sold toxic mortgages between 2005 and 2007.

More recently, CEO Tidjane Thiam announced plans to cut thousands of jobs in 2017 as part of a broad turnaround strategy.

Thiam and 11 of his top deputies have also volunteered to have their bonus pay for 2016 slashed by 40%.

It's not the first time that Thiam has issued new shares to raise cash. A few months after he took the top job in 2015, the bank announced plans to raise more than $6 billion in capital from investors.

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The bank announced two other changes on Wednesday: It has decided against an IPO for its Swiss banking division, and it will switch to paying dividends in cash instead of shares. Paying in cash would prevent the value of existing shares from being diluted.

Shares in Credit Suisse hit record lows in the summer of 2016. Shares have since recovered some ground, but they're still trading far below levels hit before the global financial crisis.