Zurich - Switzerland's second biggest bank Credit Suisse reported Thursday a bigger-than-expected first quarter loss as well as another 5.3 billion Swiss francs (5.2 billion) in write-downs of risky investments as the group battles to lay aside the fallout from the US subprime mortgage market crisis.

The Zurich-based bank posted a loss of 2.15 billion francs during the first quarter compared to a profit of 2.73 billion francs during the first three months of 2007. Analysts had expected the bank to report a first-quarter loss of about 779 million francs.

"Our first-quarter results are clearly unsatisfactory," said Credit Suisse chief Brady Dougan announcing the results. "However, during the quarter we substantially reduced our exposures to affected areas and will continue to do so in a disciplined fashion," he said

Switzerland's big banks have badly hit by the US mortgage market upheaval with Europe's biggest bank, Zurich-based UBS AG forced to make more than 37 billion dollars in writedowns for toxic assets linked to the American housing shakeout. (dpa)