The Credit Suisse Group reported $746 million net profit in its fourth quarter, on Thursday. The bank witnessed the asset inflows of 12.5 billion francs.

Analysts at Zuercher Kantonalbank noted that Credit Suisse released set-asides, worth 40 million francs during the quarter, rather than increasing its reserves by 250 million francs as predicted.

Operating costs including staff pay also increased beyond expectations, they said.

For the full year, Credit Suisse recorded a net profit of 6.72 billion francs compared with a net loss of 8.22 billion francs in 2008.

"As with its peers, Credit Suisse saw a notable slowdown in investment banking activity", said Christian Stark, an analyst with Cheuvreux. "Perhaps the disappointment on the investment banking side in the fourth quarter will be offset by a good start to the year", he added.

Credit Suisse has capitalized on its main rival's weakness and won market share, attracting more than 42 billion francs of new client money in private banking, in 2009, against an outflow of nearly 150 billion francs UBS suffered, in the same year.

"We continue to see wealth management as an attractive growth market", said Renato Fassbind, the Chief Financial Officer.