Russian roulette.(Credit Suisse First Boston proposes Russian bond fund)(Brief Article)

Economist (US), The, March, 1999

MOSCOW has proved the graveyard of many a banker of late-sometimes literally. Financially, at least, no foreign bank has had a worse time of it than Credit Suisse First Boston. As the biggest trader in the Russian bond market, it also took the largest losses when Russia defaulted last August. The firm's boss, Allen Wheat, does not bother with excuses for the debacle. He is a resilient type. Indeed, sources at the bank say that he wanted the firm to buy more Russian debt, on the ground that the collapse in prices was a great buying opportunity. The board of Credit Suisse, which owns CSFB, was unimpressed but denies that it almost sacked Mr Wheat.

On March 16th CSFB announced that it had lost $154m last year, largely because of a $1.3 billion loss on its Russian...

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