ZURICH, Switzerland (AP) — Credit Suisse Group yesterday swung to a first-quarter loss of 2.1 billion Swiss francs ($2.1 billion) as the US sub-prime mortgage crisis continued its spread across the Atlantic.

Switzerland's second-largest bank said it also had net write-downs of 5.3 billion francs ($5.3 billion) for big buyout loans and mortgage securities.

Credit Suisse's results contrast with the bank's net profit of 2.7 billion francs in the first quarter of 2007.

"Our first-quarter results are clearly unsatisfactory," said chief executive Brady Dougan.

The bank, which employs 48,000 people world-wide, said earlier this week that it was cutting a further 500 employees in addition to the 1,000 jobs it has already eliminated in investment banking, but that it was creating an unspecified number of jobs in other operations.

It is too soon to declare the market turmoil over despite signs of an improvement in April, Dougan told reporters.

People had seen light at the end of the tunnel a number of times, he said, but so far "it turned out to be a train coming down the tracks".

"You make assumptions about how low securitised assets can go, and yet what is bad can still get worse because the underlying assets are still falling," said Cubillas Ding, a London-based senior analyst at financial research firm Celent.

"As a whole, the industry will need to relook at pricing practices of complex derivatives," he said. "Something's obviously broken. The risks involved and the controls to address those vulnerabilities are not properly aligned."

It was the first quarterly report among major European investment banks, but others have warned of more write-downs. Barclays PLC in Britain issued what some analysts took to be a first-quarter profit warning when it said very tough markets in March hit earnings at its investment bank units.

Germany's Deutsche Bank AG has said it expects to post 2.5 billion euros ($3.98 billion) in markdowns for buyout loans and mortgage securities, while UBS expects a net loss of 12.45 billion francs ($12.36 billion) because of its sub-prime exposure.

Credit Suisse, which last reported a quarterly loss five years ago, has so far withstood the sub-prime crisis much better than its cross-town rival, UBS AG, which has had to write down $37.4 billion in assets because of bad investments in US mortgage securities.

The bank's first-quarter revenue slid 72 percent to 3.02 billion francs ($3 billion), as stable revenue from its private bank failed to make up for the investment bank's write-downs.

Credit Suisse said it has continued to reduce exposure to risk in the market, and analysts lauded the Swiss bank for cleaning its book of risky securities.

"We are close to a proper clean up in Credit Suisse, which is clearly positive on risk exposures," JPMorgan analyst Kian Abouhossein wrote in a note to investors.

Credit Suisse shares, which have fallen 43 percent in the last 12 months, closed up 4.19 percent at 54.75 francs ($54.34) on the Zurich exchange.

"Other than the areas affected directly by the credit crisis, most of our businesses performed well, with revenues near, or in some cases above, those in the first quarter of 2007," Dougan said.

He said the bank "remains well positioned in an extremely challenging environment".

Credit Suisse's capital position is strong, Dougan said, adding that the bank would continue to manage its liquidity conservatively.

"I am confident that we will continue to serve as a safe haven for clients in uncertain and volatile markets, and to seize the opportunities that arise in times of market dislocation to create long-term value," Dougan said.