Lehman Brothers: no major impact on either BCV or its clients

Lausanne, Switzerland, 18 September 2008 - The demise of the investment bank Lehman Brothers has led to widespread uncertainty on the financial markets. BCV has made major reductions in its counterparty exposure to Lehman Brothers over the past several months, and for this reason Management does not expect to book any losses as a result of Lehman’s Chapter 11 filing. Even if market conditions were to worsen and result in a loss on the Bank’s Lehman exposures, the amount would not exceed CHF 3m.

In addition, as BCV has its own range of structured products, the Bank has never marketed Lehman Brothers structured products.

Management is of course closely and proactively monitoring the current financial-market upsets.

Contact(s)

Christian Jacot-Descombes, Press Officer
Phone + 41 21 212 28 61
E-mail

Wilhelm Blaeuer, Investor relations
Phone + 41 21 212 20 71
E-mail

This press release is being issued outside the trading hours of the SIX, Swiss Exchange in order to comply with the principles of ad hoc disclosure pursuant to the SIX listing rules.

The above text is a translation of the original French document; only the French version is authoritative.