Citing "unprecedented market disruption" and "extraordinary changes" to the financial landscape, Swiss banking giant Credit Suisse (CS) confirmed a third-quarter loss of 1.3 billion Swiss francs (US$1.12 billion) on Thursday and warned of challenging conditions for the current quarter.

Reiterating results it preliminarily released last week, Credit Suisse reported a net loss of 1.26 billion francs in the third quarter, compared with a profit of 1.3 billion francs a year ago.

Credit Suisse’s revenue plunged 48% last quarter to 3.11 billion francs.

"The financial services sector witnessed unprecedented market disruption in September and extraordinary changes to the competitive landscape. These events led to a very difficult operating environment, particularly in investment banking,” CEO Brady Dougan said in a press release.

He added, "While understandable in the context of the market environment, this result is clearly disappointing."

Looking ahead, Credit Suisse warned of an uncertain outlook. “We expect the market environment to remain very challenging and we are cautious with regard to the outlook for the fourth quarter,” said Dougan.

The financial giant’s investment bank was slammed by the credit crisis in September, forcing it to write down 2.4 billion francs in the quarter. Net revenues in the unit plunged to 515 million francs from 2.10 billion francs a year ago.

Credit Suisse’s asset management unit saw 16.5 billion francs withdrawn from it during the third quarter even as deposits rose by 14.5 billion francs in its private banking business.

Like many of its peers, Credit Suisse has seen its share price plunge this year amid the credit crisis. Shares are off more than 37% year-to-date. Still, Credit Suisse has fared better than Swiss rival UBS (UBS), whose shares have lost more than two-third of their value in 2008.

Unlike UBS, Credit Suisse declined an offer of government help this month, instead looking to the private sector for a capital injection of 10 billion francs from foreign investors.