Trading in the Swiss bank’s shares was halted late morning as they fell by a fifth to fresh record lows, having been pummelled earlier in the week in market fallout from the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SIVB.O).

Switzerland’s second-biggest bank is seeking to recover from a string of scandals that have undermined the confidence of investors and clients.

Customer outflows in the fourth quarter rose to more than 110 billion Swiss francs ($120 billion).

At 1046 GMT, Credit Suisse shares were trading down 20% at 1.7840 Swiss francs.

Credit Suisse on Tuesday published its annual report for 2022 saying the bank had identified “material weaknesses” in controls over financial reporting and not yet stemmed customer outflows.

The head of Credit Suisse Group’s largest shareholder, Saudi National Bank (SNB) (1180.SE), said on Wednesday it would not buy more shares in the Swiss bank on regulatory grounds.

“We cannot because we would go above 10%. It’s a regulatory issue,” SNB chairman Ammar Al Khudairy said in an interview with Reuters.

The Saudi bank holds a 9.88% stake in Credit Suisse, according to Refinitiv data.

Al Khudairy said SNB was happy with Credit Suisse’s turnaround plan and did not think it would need more money, but also described his bank’s investment as an opportunistic one that was not time-dependent.

The Saudi bank would exit when proper value to the shares had been acquired, he added.

“We are happy with the plan, the transformation plan that they have put forward. It is a very strong bank,” Al Khudairy said on the sidelines of a conference in Riyadh.

“I don’t think they will need extra money; if you look at their ratios, they’re fine. And they operate under a strong regulatory regime in Switzerland and in other countries.”

The Saudi lender acquired a stake of almost 10% last year after it took part in Credit Suisse’s capital raising and committed to investing up to 1.5 billion Swiss francs ($1.5 billion).

“That was absolutely idiotic,” the employee, who works on the asset management side of Silicon Valley Bank, told CNN in an interview.

“They were being very transparent. It’s the exact opposite of what you’d normally see in a scandal. But their transparency and forthrightness did them in.”

“People are just shocked at how stupid the CEO is,” the Silicon Valley Bank insider said.

“You’re in business for 40 years and you are telling me you can’t raise $2 billion privately?

Get on a jet and fly to Kuwait like everyone else and give them control of one-third of the bank.”

Lloyd Blankfein, senior chairman and former CEO of Goldman Sachs, said it was “laughable” that Silicon Valley Bank collapsed because it had board members who belong to minority communities.

During a conversation with Erin Burnett on CNN’s Erin Burnett Outfront Tuesday, Blankfein reacted to a quote from Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and a Wall Street Journal op-ed by Andy Kessler.

DeSantis blamed the bank’s collapse on its concern with “DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion] and politics.”

Kessler, meanwhile, wrote, “In its proxy statement, SVB notes that besides 91% of their board being independent and 45% women, they also have “1 Black,” “1 LGBTQ+” and “2 Veterans.” I’m not saying 12 white men would have avoided this mess, but the company may have been distracted by diversity demands.”

Instead of addressing the quotes head-on, Blankfein said that in retrospect, signs of the bank’s collapse were missed.

“Banks publish the unrealized losses that are embedded in their portfolios,” he said. “It was there to be seen… It wasn’t seen to be that dangerous given that the bank didn’t have to sell any of those securities. But they certainly did once withdrawals started to be made. And so, in hindsight, it will have appeared to have been in plain sight, and the signals will have been missed. But it became critical only when deposits were withdrawn and the banks needed to sell those out-of the-money securities in order to raise funds.”

When Burnett asked again if the bank collapsed because it was focused on placing a black person or a gay person on its board, Blankfein responded:

“I’m not an expert in mass psychology, but I think that’s very unlikely and I think frankly it’s a bit laughable.”

“There should be no mistaking that Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse was a direct result of the Fed’s persistent and excessive interest rate hikes,” they wrote.

Why? Because the Fed’s war on inflation depressed both the value of the bonds Silicon Valley Bank was relying on for capital and the value of the tech startups the bank catered to.

Of course, Silicon Valley Bank had more than a year to prepare for both of those issues.

Please continue to live your life with the knowledge that it can change fairly quickly.