Credit Suisse Posts First-Quarter Profit of $600M

Credit Suisse said its first-quarter net income was 596 million Swiss francs ($600 million), topping analysts' expectations on strong performance in its wealth-management and global-markets divisions.

Also Wednesday, the Swiss banking giant said its board will propose a share-capital increase of 4 billion francs through new-share issuance. The proposal will be considered at an extraordinary general meeting on May 18.

Last quarter's profit compared with a year-earlier net loss of 302 million francs. Revenue was up 19%, to 5.5 billion francs. The median forecast of outside analyst forecasts compiled by the bank was for net income of 332 million francs on revenue of around 5.5 billion francs.

Credit Suisse endured a bumpy 2016 as it shifted from the volatile investment-banking business toward wealth management. Last year ended with the bank's reaching a $5.3 billion settlement with U.S. authorities to resolve a case involving mortgage-backed securities sold in the run-up to the financial crisis.

The bank posted a 2.4 billion franc loss last year.

Credit Suisse had previously signaled that 2017 had gotten off to a strong start, particularly in its investment-banking and wealth-management units, due to the rosier mood in financial markets following the U.S. presidential election.

Write to Brian Blackstone at brian.blackstone@wsj.com