How Credit Suisse has evolved over 167 years By Reuters

ZURICH (Reuters) – 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.

1856

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

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 licence 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 international financial group.

1982

SKA becomes the first Swiss bank with a seat on the New York Stock Exchange via its SASI unit; CS Holding is set up as a sister company of SKA to hold stakes in industrial companies.

1988

CS Holding buys a 45% stake in First Boston as part of a rescue deal, and renames it CS First Boston; the two had first linked up a decade earlier to operate in the London bond market.

1989

CS Holding becomes SKA group’s parent company.

1990

The group takes a controlling stake in U.S. investment bank CS First Boston and buys Bank Leu, a Swiss private bank.

1993

The group buys Volksbank, Switzerland’s fourth-largest bank, and a year later buys Neue Aargauer Bank.

1997

A reorganisation turns CS Holding into Credit Suisse Group and drops the SKA name; it also buys insurer Winterthur, a strategic partner.

1999

The group buys the asset management business of Warburg, Pincus & Co, followed by the purchase of Wall Street firm Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette (DLJ) a year later.

2002

A reorganisation creates two units:…