title: Curtiss P-40 Warhawk

text: The Soviets stripped down their P-40s significantly for combat, in many cases removing the wing guns altogether in P-40B/C types, for example. Soviet Air Force reports state that they liked the range and fuel capacity of the P-40, which were superior to most of the Soviet fighters, though they still preferred the P-39. Soviet pilot Nikolai G. Golodnikov recalled: "The cockpit was vast and high. At first it felt unpleasant to sit waist-high in glass, as the edge of the fuselage was almost at waist level. But the bullet-proof glass and armored seat were strong and visibility was good. The radio was also good. It was powerful, reliable, but only on HF (high frequency). The American radios did not have hand microphones but throat microphones. These were good throat mikes: small, light and comfortable." The biggest complaint of some Soviet airmen was its poor climb rate and problems with maintenance, especially with burning out the engines. VVS pilots usually flew the P-40 at War Emergency Power settings while in combat, which brought acceleration and speed performance closer to that of their German rivals, but could burn out engines in a matter of weeks. Tires and batteries also failed. The fluid in the engine's radiators often froze, cracking their cores, which made the Allison engine unsuitable for operations during harsh winter conditions. During the winter of 1941, the 126th Fighter Aviation Regiment suffered from cracked radiators on 38 occasions. Often, entire regiments were reduced to a single flyable aircraft because no replacement parts were available. They also had difficulty with the more demanding requirements for fuel and oil quality of the Allison engines. A fair number of burned-out P-40s were re-engined with Soviet Klimov M-105 engines, but these performed relatively poorly and were relegated to rear area use.


title: Curtiss P-40 Warhawk

text: The P-40 saw the most front line use in Soviet hands in 1942 and early 1943. Deliveries over the Alaska-Siberia ALSIB ferry route began in October 1942. It was used in the northern sectors and played a significant role in the defense of Leningrad. The most numerically important types were P-40B/C, P-40E and P-40K/M. By the time the better P-40F and N types became available, production of superior Soviet fighters had increased sufficiently so that the P-40 was replaced in most Soviet Air Force units by the Lavochkin La-5 and various later Yakovlev types. In spring 1943, Lt D.I. Koval of the 45th IAP gained ace status on the North Caucasian front, shooting down six German aircraft flying a P-40. Some Soviet P-40 squadrons had good combat records. Some Soviet pilots became aces on the P-40, though not as many as on the P-39 Airacobra, the most numerous Lend-Lease fighter used by the Soviet Union. However, Soviet commanders thought the Kittyhawk significantly outclassed the Hurricane, although it was "not in the same league as the Yak-1".


title: Curtiss P-40 Warhawk

text: The Japanese Army captured some P-40s and later operated a number in Burma. The Japanese appear to have had as many as 10 flyable P-40Es. For a brief period in 1943, a few of them were actually used operationally by 2 "Hiko Chutai", 50 "Hiko Sentai" (2nd Air Squadron, 50th Air Regiment) in the defense of Rangoon. Testimony of this is given by Yasuhiko Kuroe, a member of the 64 "Hiko Sentai". In his memoirs, he says one Japanese-operated P-40 was shot down in error by a friendly Mitsubishi Ki-21 "Sally" over Rangoon.


title: Curtiss P-40 Warhawk

text: The P-40 was used by over two dozen countries during and after the war. The P-40 was used by Brazil, Egypt, Finland and Turkey. The last P-40s in military service, used by the Brazilian Air Force (FAB), were retired in 1954.


title: Curtiss P-40 Warhawk

text: In the air war over Finland, several Soviet P-40s were shot down or had to crash-land due to other reasons. The Finns, short of good aircraft, collected these and managed to repair one P-40M, P-40M-10-CU 43–5925, "white 23", which received Finnish Air Force serial number KH-51 (KH denoting "Kittyhawk", as the British designation of this type was Kittyhawk III). This aircraft was attached to an operational squadron HLeLv 32 of the Finnish Air Force, but lack of spares kept it on the ground, with the exception of a few evaluation flights.


title: Curtiss P-40 Warhawk

text: Several P-40Ns were used by the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army Air Force with No. 120 (Netherlands East Indies) Squadron RAAF against the Japanese before being used during the fighting in Indonesia until February 1949.


title: Curtiss P-40 Warhawk

text: On 11 May 2012, a crashed P-40 Kittyhawk (ET574) was found in the Sahara desert. No trace of the pilot has been found to date. Due to the extreme arid conditions, little corrosion of the metal surfaces occurred. The conditions in which it was found are similar to those preferred for aircraft boneyards. An attempt has been made to bring back the Kittyhawk to Great Britain with the RAF Museum paying a salvage team with Supermarine Spitfire PK664 to recover the Kittyhawk. This turned out to be unsuccessful as the Kittyhawk is now being displayed outside at a military museum at El Alamein, having received a makeover many consider 'hideous', and PK664 being reported lost.


title: Curtiss P-40 Warhawk

text: Of the 13,738 P-40s built, only 28 remain airworthy, with three of them being converted to dual-controls/dual-seat configuration. Approximately 13 aircraft are on static display and another 36 airframes are under restoration for either display or flight.


title: Murmansk

text: Murmansk (Russian: "Мурманск" lit. "Norwegian coast"; Finnish: "Muurmanni;" Norwegian: "Norskekysten;" Northern Sámi: "Murmánska;" Kildin Sámi: "Мурман ланнҍ") is a port city and the administrative center of Murmansk Oblast in the far northwest part of Russia. It sits on both slopes and banks of a modest ria or fjord, Kola Bay, an estuarine inlet of the Barents Sea. Its bulk is on the east bank of the inlet. It is in the north of the rounded Kola Peninsula which covers most of the oblast. The city is from the border with Norway and from the Finnish border. The city is named for the Murman Coast, which is in turn derived from an archaic term in Russian for "Norwegian".


title: Murmansk

text: Benefiting from the North Atlantic Current, Murmansk resembles cities of its size across western Russia, with highway and railway access to the rest of Europe, and the northernmost trolleybus system on Earth. It lies over 2° north of the Arctic Circle. Its connectivity contrasts to the isolation of Arctic ports like the Siberian Dikson on the shores of the Kara Sea and Iqaluit, Nunavut in Canada on Baffin Island's Frobisher Bay off the Davis Strait. Despite long, snowy winters, Murmansk's climate is moderated by the generally ice-free waters around it.


title: Murmansk

text: Although there was a building boom in the early twentieth century's arms races, Murmansk's population has been in decline since the Cold War, from to 270,384 (2021 Census). It remains the largest city north of the Arctic Circle, with over 100,000 more inhabitants than Norilsk, Russia, and is a major port on the Arctic Ocean.


title: Murmansk

text: Murmansk was the last city founded in the Russian Empire. In 1915, World War I needs led to the construction of the railroad from Petrozavodsk to an ice-free location on the Murman Coast in the Russian Arctic, to which Russia's allies shipped military supplies. The terminus became known as the Murman station and soon boasted a port, a naval base, and an adjacent settlement with a population that quickly grew in size and soon surpassed the nearby towns of Alexandrovsk and Kola.


title: Murmansk

text: On , 1916, Russian Transport Minister Alexander Trepov petitioned to grant urban status to the railway settlement. On , 1916, the petition was approved and the town was named Romanov-on-Murman (, "Romanov-na-Murmane"), after the Imperial Russian dynasty of Romanovs. On , 1916, the official ceremony was performed, and the date is now considered the official date of the city's foundation. After the February Revolution of 1917, on , 1917, the town was given its present name.


title: Murmansk

text: In the winter of 1917 the British North Russia Squadron under Rear Admiral Thomas Kemp was established at Murmansk.


title: Murmansk

text: From 1918 to 1920, during the Russian Civil War, the town was occupied by the Western powers, who had been allied in World War I, and by the White Army forces.


title: Murmansk

text: On February 13, 1926, local self-government was organized in Murmansk for the first time, during a plenary session of the Murmansk City Soviet, which elected a Presidium. Before this, the city was governed by the authorities of Alexandrovsky Uyezd and later of Murmansk Governorate. On August 1, 1927, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee (VTsIK) issued two resolutions: "On the Establishment of Leningrad Oblast" and "On the Borders and Composition of the Okrugs of Leningrad Oblast", which transformed Murmansk Governorate into Murmansk Okrug within Leningrad Oblast and made Murmansk the administrative center of Murmansk Okrug.


title: Murmansk

text: In 1934, the Murmansk Okrug Executive Committee developed a redistricting proposal, which included a plan to enlarge the city by merging the surrounding territories in the north, south, and west into Murmansk. While this plan was not confirmed by the Leningrad Oblast Executive Committee, in 1935–1937 several rural localities of Kolsky and Polyarny Districts were merged into Murmansk anyway.


title: Murmansk

text: According to the Presidium of the Leningrad Oblast Executive Committee resolution of February 26, 1935, the administrative center of Polyarny District was moved from Polyarnoye to Sayda-Guba. However, the provisions of the resolution were not fully implemented, and due to military construction in Polyarnoye, the administrative center was instead moved to Murmansk in the beginning of 1935. In addition to being the administrative center of Murmansk Okrug, Murmansk continued to serve as the administrative center of Polyarny District until September 11, 1938. On February 10, 1938, when the VTsIK adopted a Resolution changing the administrative-territorial structure of Murmansk Okrug, the city of Murmansk became a separate administrative division of the okrug, equal in status to that of the districts. This status was retained when Murmansk Okrug was transformed into Murmansk Oblast on May 28, 1938. The Germans were promised the use of the port, they called Norwegenhafen for transportation of goods and raw materials from 1922 to 1941.


title: Murmansk

text: During World War II, Murmansk was a link to the Western world for the Soviet Union with large quantities of goods important to the respective military efforts traded with the Allies: primarily seeing military equipment, manufactured goods and raw materials brought into the Soviet Union. The supplies were brought to the city in the Arctic convoys.


title: Murmansk

text: German forces in Finnish territory launched an offensive against the city in 1941 as part of Operation Silver Fox. Murmansk suffered extensive destruction, the magnitude of which was rivaled only by the destruction of Leningrad and Stalingrad. However, fierce Soviet resistance and harsh local weather conditions with the bad terrain prevented the Germans from capturing the city and cutting off the vital Karelian railway line and the ice-free harbor.


title: Murmansk

text: For the rest of the war, Murmansk served as a transit point for weapons and other supplies entering the Soviet Union from other Allied nations. This resistance was commemorated at the 40th anniversary of the victory over the Germans in the formal designation of Murmansk as a Hero City on May 6, 1985. During the Cold War Murmansk was a center of Soviet submarine and icebreaker activity. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the nearby city and naval base of Severomorsk remains the headquarters of the Russian Northern Fleet.


title: Murmansk

text: In 1974, a massive tall statue "Alyosha", depicting a Soviet World War II soldier, was installed on a high foundation. The Hotel Arctic opened in 1984 becoming the tallest building above the Arctic Circle.


title: Murmansk

text: On January 1, 2015, the territory of Murmansk was expanded when the urban-type settlement of Roslyakovo, previously under the jurisdiction of the closed administrative-territorial formation of Severomorsk, was abolished and its territory merged into Murmansk.


title: Murmansk

text: Within the framework of administrative divisions, it is incorporated as the City of Murmansk—an administrative unit with the status equal to that of the districts. As a municipal division, the City of Murmansk is incorporated as Murmansk Urban Okrug.


title: Murmansk

text: City districts were established in Murmansk for the first time by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR of April 20, 1939; at the time, three city districts (Kirovsky, Leninsky, and Mikoyanovsky) were created. They were abolished on June 2, 1948. The same city districts were created for the second time on June 23, 1951.


title: Murmansk

text: Mikoyanovsky City District was renamed Oktyabrsky on October 30, 1957, but on September 30, 1958, all three city districts were again abolished. On June 10, 1967, two city districts were created (Leninsky and Oktyabrsky); Pervomaysky City District was split from Oktyabrsky on February 21, 1975. In the Charter of the Hero City of Murmansk, adopted on December 17, 1995, the districts started to be referred to as administrative okrugs.


title: Murmansk

text: The population of the city, according to the 2010 Census, was 307,257, of these, 141,130 men (45.9%) and 166,127 women (54.1%), down from 468,039 recorded in the 1989 Census. Ethnic Russians make up the majority of the population, but Ukrainian and Belarusian minorities also live in the city.


title: Murmansk

text: In November 2010 direct mayoral elections were abolished; they were reinstituted in January 2014, with the most recent elections for mayor and city council taking place in September 2014.


title: Murmansk

text: Murmansk has two main museums: Murmansk Oblast Museum and Murmansk Oblast Art Museum; there are also several small museums. There are three professional theaters, libraries, and an aquarium in Murmansk.


title: Murmansk

text: Alyosha Monument, Murmansk or Defenders of the Soviet Arctic during the Great Patriotic War monument is also located in Murmansk. The main square of Murmansk is Five Corners, Murmansk.


title: Murmansk

text: There are three professional theaters in Murmansk. The oldest is the Murmansk Puppetry, opened in 1933. The largest in the city was the Murmansk Regional Drama Theater, opened in 1939 . the Drama Theater of the Northern Fleet was opened in 1946.


title: Murmansk

text: The city's association football team, FC Sever Murmansk, played in the Russian Second Division until 2014 when it folded due to financial difficulties.


title: Murmansk

text: Bandy club Murman has played in the Russian Bandy Super League, last in 2011–2012. Between 2012 and 2018 they were playing in the second tier Russian Bandy Supreme League, but will from the 2018–19 season be a Super League team again. Their home arena, Stadium Stroitel, has an audience capacity of 5,000.


title: Murmansk

text: The city is one of only three places with representation in the female league, through the team Arktika. Proximity to pole and its side effects, Polar Night, has brought sport festivals such as and . The former has been awarded every years since the inaugural tournament in 1934. Norway, Finland, Sweden, Ukraine, Belarus and the Baltic countries take part in the North Festival Polar Olympiad.


title: Murmansk

text: To commemorate the 85th anniversary of the city's foundation, the snow-white church of the Savior-on-the-Waters was modeled after the White Monuments of Vladimir and Suzdal and built on the shore for the sailors of Murmansk.


title: Murmansk

text: 15 religious associations have been registered in Murmansk. The largest is the Russian Orthodox Church, Murmansk is the center of its Murmansk and Monchegorsk diocese, as well as the Murmansk Metropolis. The city has about a dozen Orthodox churches, the department of the head of the diocese and the metropolis of Metropolitan Simon is located in St. Nicholas Cathedral.


title: Murmansk

text: The port of Murmansk remains ice-free year round due to the warm North Atlantic Current and is an important fishing and shipping destination. It is home port to Atomflot, the world's only fleet of nuclear-powered icebreakers.


title: Murmansk

text: The Port of Murmansk is the headquarters of Sevmorput (Northern Sea Route) and the administration of Russian Arctic maritime transport. In 2018, the Russian government transferred the main responsibility for the Northern Sea Route to Rosatom which through its ROSATOMFLOT subsidiary manages the Russian nuclear powered icebreaker fleet based in Murmansk.


title: Murmansk

text: Murmansk is linked by the Kirov Railway to St. Petersburg and is linked to the rest of Russia by the M18 Kola Motorway. Murmansk Airport provides air links to Moscow and St. Petersburg, as well as an international connection to Tromsø, Norway.


title: Murmansk

text: Murmansk is set to be the Russian terminus of the Arctic Bridge, a sea route linking it to the Canadian port of Churchill, Manitoba. Even though the passage has not been fully tested for commercial shipping yet, Russian interest in this project (along with the Northwest Passage) is substantial, as the bridge will serve as a major trade route between North America, Europe and Asia.


title: Murmansk

text: Murmansk is home to Murmansk State Technical University, the Murmansk Arctic State University (formerly Murmansk State Pedagogical University), the Murmansk Institute of Humanities and the Murmansk College of Arts (the only Art School of the Kola Peninsula, formerly the 'Murmansk Music School'). The city has 86 primary schools and 56 secondary schools, two boarding schools, and three reform schools.


title: Murmansk

text: There is also a branch of the Naval Academy in Murmansk, where cadets study, who in the future should become officers of the Russian Navy.


title: Murmansk

text: Tromsø, Norway was also twinned with Murmansk (since 1972); Norwegian authorities gave 3 reasons for cutting ties.


title: Murmansk

text: Murmansk features a subarctic climate (Köppen "Dfc"), with long and cold winters and short, cool summers. In the city, freezing temperatures are routinely experienced from October to May. Average temperatures exceed 0 degrees Celsius only from May through October. The average low during the coldest part of the year in Murmansk is approximately . However, temperatures routinely plunge below during the winter.


title: Murmansk

text: Murmansk's brief summer is mild, with average highs in July exceeding . The city is slightly wetter during the summer than the winter and receives an annual average of just under of precipitation.


title: Murmansk

text: The "midnight sun" is above the horizon from 22 May to 23 July (63 days), and the period with continuous darkness lasts a bit shorter, polar night from 2 December to 10 January (40 days).


title: Murmansk

text: Extreme temperatures range from on January 6, 1985 and January 27, 1999 up to on July 9, 1972; the record cold daily maximum is , set on January 6, 1985, while, conversely, the record warm daily minimum is last set on July 9, 1972.


title: Murmansk

text: Murmansk has been affected by global warming in recent decades, similar to other Arctic locations. For example, December 2007 had an average high of , while a average high was measured for March 2007. Summer has also been affected, with a average high for June 2013, and a average high during July 2018.


title: Station wagon

text: A station wagon (US, also wagon) or estate car (UK, also estate), is an automotive body-style variant of a sedan/saloon with its roof extended rearward over a shared passenger/cargo volume with access at the back via a third or fifth door (the liftgate or tailgate), instead of a trunk/boot lid. The body style transforms a standard three-box design into a two-box design — to include an A, B, and C-pillar, as well as a D-pillar. Station wagons can flexibly reconfigure their interior volume via fold-down rear seats to prioritize either passenger or cargo volume.


title: Station wagon

text: The "American Heritage Dictionary" defines a station wagon as "an automobile with one or more rows of folding or removable seats behind the driver and no luggage compartment but an area behind the seats into which suitcases, parcels, etc., can be loaded through a tailgate."


title: Station wagon

text: When a model range includes multiple body styles, such as sedan, hatchback, and station wagon, the models typically share their platform, drivetrain and bodywork forward of the A-pillar, and usually the B-pillar as well. In 1969, "Popular Mechanics" said, "Station wagon-style ... follows that of the production sedan of which it is the counterpart. Most are on the same wheelbase, offer the same transmission and engine options, and the same comfort and convenience options."


title: Station wagon

text: Station wagons have evolved from their early use as specialized vehicles to carry people and luggage to and from a train "station", especially to "estates", and have been marketed worldwide. However, the demand for the station wagon body style has faded since the 2010s.


title: Station wagon

text: Reflecting the original purpose of transporting people and luggage between country "estates" and train stations, the body style is called an "estate car" or "estate" in the United Kingdom or a "wagon" in Australia and New Zealand.


title: Station wagon

text: The depot hackney or taxi, often on a Model T chassis with an exposed wood body, most often found around railroad stations was the predecessor of the station wagon body style in the United States. These early models with exposed wooden bodies became known as woodies.


title: Station wagon

text: In Germany, the term "Kombi" is used, short for "Kombinationskraftwagen" ("combination motor vehicle").


title: Station wagon

text: Station wagons have been marketed using the French term "break de chasse" (sometimes abbreviated to "break"), which translates as "hunting break", due to shared ancestry with the shooting-brake body style.


title: Station wagon

text: Manufacturers may designate station wagons across various model lines with a proprietary nameplate for marketing and advertising differentiation. Examples include "Avant", "Caravan", "Kombi", "Sports Tourer", "Sports Wagon", "Tourer", "Touring", and "Variant".


title: Station wagon

text: Station wagons and hatchbacks have in common a two-box design configuration, a shared interior volume for passengers and cargo and a rear door (often called a tailgate in the case of a wagon) that is hinged at roof level. Folding rear seats (to create a larger space for cargo) are also common on both station wagons and hatchbacks.


title: Station wagon

text: Cargo volume: Station wagons prioritize passenger and cargo volume — with windows beside the cargo volume. Of the two body styles, a station wagon roof (viewed in profile) more likely extends to the very rearmost of the vehicle, enclosing a full-height cargo volume — a hatchback roof (especially a liftback roof) is likely rake down steeply behind the C-Pillar, prioritizing style over interior volume or cargo capacity, sometimes having a shorter rear overhang and including smaller side windows (or no windows).


title: Station wagon

text: It has become common for station wagons to use a platform shared with other body styles, resulting in many shared components (such as chassis, engine, transmission, bodywork forward of the A-pillar, interior features, and optional features) being used for the wagon, sedan and hatchback variants of the model range.


title: Station wagon

text: Many modern station wagons have an upward-swinging, full-width, full-height rear door supported on gas springs — often where the rear window can swing up independently. A variety of other designs have been employed in the past.


title: Station wagon

text: The split-gate features an upward-swinging window combined with a downward swinging tailgate, both manually operated. This configuration was common in the 1920s through the 1940s, and remained common on many models into the 1960s.


title: Station wagon

text: In the early 1950s, tailgates with hand-cranked roll-down rear windows began to appear. Later in the decade, electric power was applied to the tailgate window so it could be operated from the driver's seat as well as by the key in the tailgate. By the early 1970s, this arrangement was available on full-size, intermediate, and compact wagons. The lowered bottom hinged tailgate extended the cargo area floor and could also serve as a picnic table for "tailgating."


title: Station wagon

text: These have a retractable rear roof section, as well as a conventional rear tailgate that opened down, to carry tall objects upright. The configuration appeared on the Studebaker Wagonaire station wagon and the GMC Envoy XUV.


title: Station wagon

text: In the United States, Ford's full-size station wagons for 1966 introduced a system marketed as "Magic Doorgate" — a conventional tailgate with retracting rear glass, where the tailgate could either fold down or pivot open on a side hinge — with the rear window retracted in either case. Competitors marketed their versions as a "Drop and Swing" or "Dual Action Tailgate." For 1969, Ford incorporated a design that allowed the rear glass to remain up or down when the door pivoted open on its side hinge, marketing the system, which had been engineered by Donald N. Frey as the "Three-Way Magic Doorgate".


title: Station wagon

text: Similar configurations became the standard on full-size and intermediate station wagons from GM, Ford, Chrysler, and American Motors (AMC). GM added a notch in the rear bumper that acted as a step plate; to fill the gap, a small portion of the bumper was attached to the tailgate. When opened as a swinging door, this part of the bumper moved away, allowing the depression in the bumper to provide a "step" to ease entry; when the gate was opened by being lowered or raised to a closed position, the chrome section remained in place making the bumper "whole".


title: Station wagon

text: Full-size General Motors 1971–1976 wagons — the Chevrolet Kingswood, Townsman, Brookwood, Bel Air, Impala, and Caprice Estates; Pontiac Safari and Grand Safari; Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser, and the Buick Estate models — featured a 'clam shell' design marketed as the "Glide-away" tailgate, also called a "disappearing" tailgate because when open, the tailgate was completely out of view. On the clamshell design, the rear power-operated glass slid up into the roof and the lower tailgate (with either manual or optional power operation), lowered completely below the load floor. Where manually operated, the lower tailgate was counterbalanced by a torque rod similar to the torque rods used in holding a trunk lid open, requiring a push to fully lower the gate. Raising the manual gate required a 5 lb pull via a handhold integral to the top edge of the retractable gate. The power operation of both upper glass and lower tailgate became standard equipment in later model years. Station wagons with the design were available with an optional third row of forward-facing seats accessed by the rear side doors and a folding second-row seat. They could accommodate sheets of plywood or other panels with the rear seats folded. The clamshell design required no increased footprint or operational area to open, allowing a user to stand at the cargo opening without the impediment of a door — for example, in a closed garage.


title: Station wagon

text: The GM design, as used in a Pontiac Grand Safari, with a forward-facing third-row seat and the clamshell tailgate was less popular with consumers and was described as the "least convenient of all wagon arrangements" with difficult passenger egress and problematic tailgate operation in comparison to the 1974 AMC Ambassador, Dodge Monaco, and Mercury Colony Park, full-size station wagons conducted by "Popular Science" magazine.


title: Station wagon

text: A simplified, one-piece lift-gate on smaller wagons. The AMC Hornet Sportabout was introduced for the 1972 model year featuring a "liftgate-style hatchback instead of swing-out or fold-down tailgate ... would set a precedent for liftgates in modern SUVs." The 1978-1996 GM's mid-size station wagons also returned to the upward-lifting rear window/gate as had been used in the 1940s.


title: Station wagon

text: Cargo barriers may be used to prevent unsecured cargo from causing injuries in the event of sudden deceleration, collision, or a rollover.


title: Station wagon

text: Performance models of station wagons have included the 1970 Ford Falcon (XY) 'Grand Sport' pack, the 1973 Chevrolet Chevelle Malibu SS-454 and the 1992 BMW M5 (E34).


title: Station wagon

text: The 1994 Audi RS2, developed in conjunction with Porsche, has been described as the world's first performance station wagon. This was followed by the Audi RS4 and Audi RS6.


title: Station wagon

text: The 2006-2008 Dodge Magnum SRT-8 model brought together power and performance in a roomy station wagon.


title: Station wagon

text: Other German manufacturers have produced station wagon versions of their performance models, such as the Mercedes-AMG C63, Mercedes-AMG E63, BMW M5 (E60/E61), Volkswagen Golf R and Volkswagen Passat R36 wagons.


title: Station wagon

text: The Cadillac CTS-V Wagon introduced for 2011 was considered the most powerful production station wagon offered with a manual transmission and the Corvette-engined version continued until 2014.


title: Station wagon

text: The first station wagons were built in around 1910, by independent manufacturers producing wooden custom bodies for the Ford Model T chassis. They were originally called "depot hacks" because they worked around train "depots" as "hacks" (short for hackney carriage, as taxicabs were then known). They also came to be known as "carryalls" and "suburbans". Station wagons were initially considered commercial vehicles (rather than consumer automobiles) and the framing of the early station wagons was left unsheathed, due to the commercial nature of the vehicles. Early station wagons were fixed-roof vehicles, but lacked the glass that would normally enclose the passenger compartment, and had only bench seats. In lieu of glass, side curtains of canvas could be unrolled. More rigid curtains could be snapped in place to protect passengers from the elements outside. The roofs of "woodie" wagons were usually made of stretched canvas that was treated with a waterproofing dressing. The framing of the wooden bodies was sheathed in steel and coated with tinted lacquer for protection. These wooden bodies required constant maintenance: varnishes required re-coating and expansion/contraction of the wood meant that bolts and screws required periodic re-tightening.


title: Station wagon

text: Manufacture of the wooden bodies was initially outsourced to custom coachbuilders, because the production of the all-wood bodies was very time-consuming. Eventually, car manufacturers began producing their own station wagon designs. In 1922, the Essex Closed Coach became the first mass-produced car to use a steel body (in this case, a fully enclosed sedan body style). In 1923, Star (a division of Durant Motors) became the first car company to offer a station wagon assembled on its production line (using a wooden wagon body shipped in from an outside supplier). One of the first builders of wagon bodies was the Stoughton Wagon Company from Wisconsin, which began putting custom wagon bodies on the Ford Model T chassis in 1919 and by 1929 the Ford Motor Company was the biggest producer of chassis' for station wagons. Since Ford owned its own hardwood forest and mills (at the Ford Iron Mountain Plant in what is today Kingsford, Michigan in Michigan's Upper Peninsula) it began supplying the wood components for the Model A station wagon. Also in 1929, J.T. Cantrell began supplying woodie bodies for Chrysler vehicles, which continued until 1931.


title: Station wagon

text: By the 1930s, station wagons had become expensive and well-equipped vehicles. When it was introduced in 1941 the Chrysler Town & Country was the most expensive car in the company's model range. The first all-steel station wagon body style was the 1935 Chevrolet Suburban. As part of the overall trend in the automotive industry, wooden bodies were superseded by all-steel bodies due to their strength, cost, and durability. The commercial vehicle status was also reflected on those vehicles' registrations For example, there were special "Suburban" license plates in Pennsylvania used well into the 1960s, long after station wagons became car-based.


title: Station wagon

text: The first all-steel station wagon was the 1935 Chevrolet Suburban, which was built on the chassis of a panel truck. However, most station wagons were produced with wooden bodies until after World War II.


title: Station wagon

text: When automobile production resumed after World War II, advances in production techniques made all-steel station wagon bodies more practical, eliminating the cost, noise, and maintenance associated with wood bodies. The first mass-produced steel-bodied station wagon was the 1946 Willys Station Wagon, based on the chassis of the Jeep CJ-2A. In 1947, Crosley introduced a steel-bodied station wagon version of the Crosley CC Four.


title: Station wagon

text: The first postwar station wagon to be based on a passenger car chassis was the 1949 Plymouth Suburban, which used a two-door body style. Several manufacturers produced steel and wooden-bodied station wagons concurrently for several years. For example, Plymouth continued the production of wooden-bodied station wagons until 1950. The final wooden-bodied station produced in the United States was the 1953 Buick Super Estate.


title: Station wagon

text: By 1951, most station wagons were being produced with all-steel bodies. Station wagons experienced the highest production levels in the United States from the 1950s through the 1970s as a result of the American Mid-20th century baby boom.


title: Station wagon

text: The late 1950s through the mid-1960s was also the period of greatest variation in body styles, with models available without a B-pillar (called hardtop or pillarless models) or with a B-pillar, both in 2-door and 4-door variants.


title: Station wagon

text: The 1956 Rambler was an all-new design and the 4-door "Cross Country" featured the industry's first station wagon hardtop. However, the pillarless models could be expensive to produce, added wind noise, and created structural issues with body torque. GM eliminated the pillarless wagon from its lineup in 1959, while AMC and Ford exited the field beginning with their 1960 and 1961 vehicles, leaving Chrysler and Dodge with the body style through the 1964 model year.


title: Station wagon

text: The popularity of the station wagon - particularly full-size station wagons - in the United States was blunted by increased fuel prices caused by the 1973 oil crisis. Then in 1983, the market for station wagons was further eroded by the Chrysler minivans, based on the K platform. While the K platform was also used for station wagon models (such as the Plymouth Reliant and Dodge Aries), the minivan would soon eclipse them in popularity.


title: Station wagon

text: The US CAFE standards provided an advantage to minivans (and later SUVs) over station wagons, because the minivans and SUVs were classified as trucks in the United States, and therefore subject to less stringent fuel economy and emissions regulations. Station wagons remained popular in Europe and in locations where emissions and efficiency regulations did not distinguish between cars and light trucks.


title: Station wagon

text: The emergence and popularity of SUVs which closely approximate the traditional station wagon body style was a further blow. After struggling sales, the Chevrolet Caprice and the Buick Roadmaster, the last American full-size wagons, were discontinued in 1996. Smaller station wagons were marketed as lower-priced alternatives to SUVs and minivans. Domestic wagons also remained in the Ford, Mercury, and Saturn lines. However, after 2004 these compact station wagons also began to be phased out in the United States. The Ford Taurus wagon was discontinued in 2005 and the Ford Focus station wagon was discontinued in 2008. An exception to this trend was the Subaru Legacy and Subaru Outback station wagon models, which continue to be produced at the Subaru of Indiana plant. With other brands, the niche previously occupied by station wagons is now primarily filled with a similar style of Crossover SUV, which generally has a car underpinning and a wagon body.


title: Station wagon

text: Imported station wagons, despite remaining popular in other countries, struggled in the United States. European luxury car manufacturers such as Audi, Volvo, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz continued to offer station wagons in their North American product ranges (marketed using the labels "Avant", "Touring", and "Estate" respectively). However, these vehicles had fewer trim and power train levels than their sedan counterparts. The Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG in Estate trim is a performance station wagon offered in the U.S. market. The station wagon variants of the smaller Mercedes-Benz C-Class line-up were dropped in 2007 and the BMW 5 Series Touring models were discontinued in 2010, due to slow sales in the United States with only 400 wagons sold in 2009. In 2012, the Volvo V50 compact station wagon was withdrawn from the U.S. market due to poor sales.


title: Station wagon

text: The Cadillac CTS gave rise to a station wagon counterpart, the 2010 CTS Sportwagon, which defied the trend by offering almost as many trim levels as its sedan counterpart. The CTS wagon, particularly in the performance CTS-V trim, received positive reviews until it was discontinued in 2014.


title: Station wagon

text: In 2011, the Toyota Prius V introduced hybrid power to the compact wagon market, but was discontinued in 2017 to streamline the Toyota hybrid lineup and focus on the RAV4 Hybrid Crossover SUV.


title: Station wagon

text: The 2015 VW Golf "Sportwagen" was marketed as a sub-compact station wagon in the North American market. As of 2019, Volkswagen announced the cancellation of the Sportwagen in the US market.


title: Station wagon

text: In 2016, Volvo reintroduced a large wagon to the US market with the Volvo V90, but only by special order.


title: Station wagon

text: As the wooden bodies were replaced by steel bodies from 1945 to 1953, manufacturers applied wooden decorative trim to the steel-bodied wagons, as a visual link to the previous wooden style. By the late 1950s, the wooden trim was replaced by "simulated wood" in the form of stick-on vinyl coverings. The woodgrain feature is not that the body is wood — or that it could ever be wood - rather, it is "totally honest in its artificiality."


title: Station wagon

text: The design element was also used on cars that were not station wagons, including sedans, pickup trucks, and convertibles.


title: Station wagon

text: Unique simulated wood designs included trim on the body pillars of the compact-size Nash Rambler station wagons that went up the roof's drip rail and around on the spit liftgate While the larger Cross Country was available with bodyside wood trim that went unbroken up the C and D pillars to a thin strip on the roof above the side windows.


title: Station wagon

text: The Ford Country Squire is a model that was easily recognized by its simulated wood trim and the "Squire" trim level was an available option in a few different Ford model ranges, including the Falcon Squire, Fairlane Squire, and in the 1970s the Pinto Squire. The Squire was always the highest trim level of any Ford Wagon and included the signature woodgrain applique, and usually additional exterior chrome, better interior trim, special emblems, etc. The full-size Country Squire model was produced in higher quantities than the other Ford models.


title: Station wagon

text: Other woodie-style wagon models produced in significant numbers include the 1984-1993 , 1957-1991 Mercury Colony Park, 1968-1988 Chrysler Town & Country, 1970-1990 Buick Estate, 1971-1992 Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser and 1969-1972 Chevrolet Kingswood Estate.


title: Station wagon

text: From the 1950s until the 1990s, many full-size American station wagons could be optioned with a third row of seating in the cargo area (over the rear axle) for a total of nine seats. Prior to 1956, the third-row seats were forward-facing.


title: Station wagon

text: Chrysler's 1957 models had a roof too low to permit a forward-facing seat in the cargo area, so a rear-facing seat was used for the third row.


title: Station wagon

text: General Motors adopted the rear-facing third row for most models during 1959-1971 and 1977–1996. However, the 1964–1972 Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser and 1964–1969 Buick Sport Wagon featured raised roof lines beginning above the second-row seat and continuing all the way to the rear tailgate, resulting in the third row of seats being forward-facing. General Motors also used forward-facing seats for the third row in the 1971–1976 clam shell wagons.


title: Station wagon

text: The Ford and Mercury full-size wagons built after 1964 were available with four rows of seats, with the rear two rows in the cargo area and facing each other. The third and fourth rows were designed for two people each (although these seats were quite narrow in later models), giving a total seating capacity of ten people.


title: Station wagon

text: The trend since the 1980s for smaller station wagon bodies has limited the seating to two rows, resulting in a total capacity of five people, or six people if a bench front seat is used. Since the 1990s, full-size station wagons have been largely replaced by SUVs with three-row seating, such as the Chevrolet Suburban, Ford Expedition, Mercedes-Benz GL-Class, and Dodge Durango.


title: Station wagon

text: The first two-door station wagon was the 1946 Willys Jeep Station Wagon. Other early two-door station wagons were the 1951 Nash Rambler and the 1954 Studebaker Conestoga. In 1956, Studebaker introduced three new two-door wagons in Pelham, Parkview, and Pinehurst trims.


title: Station wagon

text: General Motors began producing two-door station wagons in 1955 with the "Chevrolet Handyman" and the "Pontiac Chieftain". General Motors also introduced the sportier Chevrolet Nomad and Pontiac Safari to their lineup in 1955. Ford began production of steel-bodied two-door station wagons in 1952 with the Ford Ranch Wagon. In 1956 Ford responded to the Nomad and Safari with its own sporty two-door wagon, The Ford Parklane. The Parklane was a one-year-only model, succeeded by the Ford Del Rio in 1957.


title: Station wagon

text: After the merger of Nash and Hudson, the new company, American Motors (AMC) reintroduced the two-door wagon in the "new" Rambler American line in 1958. It was "recycling" with only a few modifications from the original version and targeted buyers looking for "no-frills" economy. American Motors' strategy of reintroducing an old design made for two distinct model runs, one of few examples where such a strategy has been successful for an automobile manufacturer.


title: Station wagon

text: The Chevrolet Vega Kammback, introduced in September 1970, was the first U.S.-made four-seat wagon and the first two-door wagon from GM in six years. It shared its wheelbase and length with Vega coupe versions and was produced in the 1971–1977 model years.


title: Station wagon

text: Early station wagon cars were after-market conversions, with the new bodywork using a wooden frame and either steel or wooden panels. These wooden-bodied cars, produced until the 1960s, were amongst the most expensive vehicles at the time. Since the 1930s, the term shooting-brake (originally a term for hunting vehicles) has been an alternative, if now rarely used, the term for station wagons in the UK.


title: Station wagon

text: Later, station wagons were produced by vehicle manufacturers and included the 1937 Commer (based on the Hillman Minx Magnificent), 1952 Morris Minor Traveller, 1952 Morris Oxford Traveller, 1954 Hillman Husky, 1954 Austin A30 Countryman and 1955 Ford Squire. The majority of these models were two-door wagons and several models were built on the chassis of relatively small cars.


title: Station wagon

text: Manufacturers often chose a specific model name to apply to all their station wagon cars as a marketing exercise — for example Austin used the Countryman name and Morris used the name Travellers. Some station wagons were closely derived from existing commercial van models, such as the Austin A30/35 Countryman and the Hillman Husky. Others, such as the Morris Travellers, the Austin Cambridge Countryman and the Standard Ten Companion were bespoke.


title: Station wagon

text: Rover and Austin produced 4×4 canvas-topped utility vehicles in the 1950s that were available in station wagon body styles that were sold as "Station Wagons". They incorporated better seating and trim than standard editions with options such as heaters. Early advertising for the Land Rover version took the name literally, showing the vehicle collecting people and goods from a railway station.


title: Station wagon

text: Despite the popularity of station wagons in America, station wagon offerings in the U.K. from Ford and Vauxhall were limited to factory-approved aftermarket conversions of the Ford Consul and Vauxhall Cresta, until the factory-built Vauxhall Victor wagon was introduced in 1958.


title: Station wagon

text: One of the smallest station wagons ever produced was the Morris Mini Traveller / Austin Mini Countryman, introduced in 1960.


title: Station wagon

text: The 1967 Hillman Husky station wagon version of the Hillman Imp was unusual in being a rear-engined station wagon.


title: Station wagon

text: Ford and Vauxhall produced factory-built station wagon variants of all three of their respective core models (small-, mid-, and large-size cars) by the 1970s. The FD- and FE-Series Vauxhall Victors, built between 1966 and 1978, were very large cars by British standards and featured station wagon models in the style of an American station wagon with front and rear bench seats and large-capacity petrol engines.


title: Station wagon

text: Other station wagons sold in the United Kingdom included the Morris 1100 (introduced in 1966), Vauxhall Viva (introduced 1967), Ford Escort (introduced in 1968), and Vauxhall Chevette (introduced 1976).


title: Station wagon

text: Germany is the largest market for station wagons in the world, with around 600–700,000 vehicles sold each year - amounting to 20% of all car sales. German-designed station wagons have been produced by Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Opel, and Volkswagen. Some larger station wagon models are available with a third row of seats, such as the rear-facing jump seat for two passengers in the cargo area of the Mercedes-Benz E-Class wagon.


title: Station wagon

text: In 1961, Volkswagen introduced the two-door "Variant" body style of the Volkswagen Type 3 (also known as the Volkswagen 1500 - later the Volkswagen 1600). The Type 3's rear-engine layout was retained for the station wagon models, but the engine profile was flattened, resulting in a small car offering interior room, as well as trunk space in the front. The model was offered through the 1973 model year.


title: Station wagon

text: Station wagons produced in East Germany include the 1956–1965 Wartburg 311/312/313, the 1963–1990 Trabant 601 Universal, and the 1966–1988 Wartburg 353 Tourist.


title: Station wagon

text: In France, almost all station wagon models are called a "Break", although the spelling is different from the English shooting brake.


title: Station wagon

text: The first station wagon produced by a French manufacturer was the Citroën Traction Avant Familiale model introduced in 1935. The first Peugeot station wagon was the Peugeot 203, introduced in 1950.


title: Station wagon

text: In 1958, the Citroën ID Break (known as the Safari in English-speaking countries) was introduced, being larger than other French station wagon models and of similar size to the contemporary full-size station wagons from the United States. It had a seating capacity of eight people, consisting of two front-facing bench seats and two folding inward-facing seats in the cargo area. The 'Familiale' version had a front bench seat, a forward-facing three-space bench seat in the middle, and a folding forward-facing three-seat bench in the rear, providing a versatile nine-seat car. The Citroën ID also had a two-part tailgate and a hydropneumatic suspension that allowed a self-leveling ride height and automatic brake biasing regardless of the load carried. The car could also 'kneel' to the ground for easy loading of heavy or large items. The successors to the ID, the Citroën CX and Citroën XM continued to be amongst the largest station wagon cars produced in Europe, but the model was discontinued in 2000 and a station wagon version was not available for its Citroën C6 successor.


title: Station wagon

text: The Peugeot 404, introduced in 1960, offered a conventional large station wagon alternative to the innovative Citroëns. Its replacement, the 505 was available in both five-seat and seven-seat 'Familiale' versions. As with the Citroëns, changing demands in the French car market led to the end of the large Peugeot station wagon models in the mid-1990s, with the smaller Peugeot 406 becoming the largest station wagon model in the range from 1995. In a similar situation to the United States, the decline of traditional Break and Familiale models in France was in no small part due to the introduction of the minivan in the form of the Renault Espace in 1984.


title: Station wagon

text: The first station wagon produced in Sweden was the Volvo Duett, introduced in 1953. The Duett two-door wagon was conceived as a dual-function delivery van and people-carrier and is based on the chassis of the PV444 and PV544 sedans.


title: Station wagon

text: In 1962, the Volvo Duett was supplemented by a larger but lower Amazon, which has a four-door body and a horizontal split tailgate. Volvo continued production of station wagons through the Volvo 145 (introduced in 1967), then the Volvo 200 Series (introduced in 1974), and the Volvo 700 Series (introduced in 1985). In many markets, the station wagon models of the 700 Series significantly outsold the sedan models. In 1990, the 700 Series was replaced by the Volvo 900 Series, which was sold alongside the smaller Volvo 850 wagon that was introduced one year later. The 900 Series ended production in 1998 and its successor (the Volvo S80) did not include any wagon models. Volvo station wagons produced since the mid-1990s are the Volvo V40, Volvo V50, Volvo V60, Volvo V70, and Volvo V90, with the V40, V60, and V90 models currently in production.


title: Station wagon

text: Saab began producing station wagons in 1959, in the form of the Saab 95 two-door wagon, which was based on the Saab 93 sedan. Following a hiatus in station wagon production since the Saab 95 ended production in 1978, the company introduced the four-door Saab 9-5 station wagon in 1997, which was produced until 2010. In 2005 a 'Sportwagon' version of the Saab 9-3 was introduced and produced until 2011.


title: Station wagon

text: In 1983, station wagons represented 15% of the passenger car market, reflecting a trend throughout Europe of increasing popularity through the 1980s, with the vehicles becoming less cargo-oriented.


title: Station wagon

text: The first Japanese station wagon was the 1969 Isuzu Bellel four-door wagon, based on a compact sedan chassis. This was followed by the 1963 Mazda Familia, 1966 Toyota Corolla, 1967 Isuzu Florian, 1969 Mitsubishi Galant, 1973 Mitsubishi Lancer and 1974 Honda Civic wagons. However, Japanese manufacturers did not build station wagons in large volumes until recently.


title: Station wagon

text: Models marketed as passenger station wagons in export markets were often sold as utilitarian "van" models in the home market. Some were not updated for consecutive generations in a model's life in Japan. For example, a sedan might have a model life of four years, but the wagon was not updated for up to eight years (such as the Toyota Corolla wagon built from 1979 to 1987) and the 1987-1996 Mazda Capella wagon). Station wagons remain popular in Japan, although they are in slow decline as the SUVs and minivans have taken over a large portion of this market.


title: Station wagon

text: South Korean manufacturers do not have a strong tradition in producing station wagons. The first station wagon by the South Korean manufacturer was released way back in 1995 as the Hyundai Avante Touring (Lantra Sportswagon), followed in early 1996 as the Kia Pride station wagon. Daewoo Motor followed suit a year later with the first-generation Nubira.


title: Station wagon

text: South Korean manufacturer Kia produce both the Cee'd and Optima station wagons designated as Sportswagons with sister company Hyundai offering station wagon versions of the i30 and i40.


title: Station wagon

text: The first Australian-designed car was built in 1948 but locally designed station wagons did not appear until nine years later when the 1957 Holden FE was introduced. Holden's main competitor, the Ford Falcon (XK) introduced wagon models in 1960.


title: Station wagon

text: Ford and Holden produced wagon models based on each generation of their large sedan platforms until 2010. Other wagons produced in Australia include the smaller Toyota Camry and Mitsubishi Magna. The Ford and Holden wagons were usually built on a longer wheelbase than their sedan counterparts, until the introduction of the Holden Commodore (VE) which switched to sharing the sedan's shorter wheelbase.


title: Station wagon

text: Ford ceased production of wagons in Australia when the Ford Falcon (BF) ended production in 2010, largely due to the declining station wagon and large car market, but also following the 2004 introduction and sales success of the Ford Territory SUV. Production of wagons in Australia ceased in 2017 when the Holden Commodore (VF) ended production.


title: Bond (finance)

text: In finance, a bond is a type of security under which the issuer (debtor) owes the holder (creditor) a debt, and is obliged – depending on the terms – to repay the principal (i.e. amount borrowed) of the bond at the maturity date as well as interest (called the coupon) over a specified amount of time. The interest is usually payable at fixed intervals: semiannual, annual, and less often at other periods. Thus, a bond is a form of loan or IOU. Bonds provide the borrower with external funds to finance long-term investments or, in the case of government bonds, to finance current expenditure.


title: Bond (finance)

text: Bonds and stocks are both securities, but the major difference between the two is that (capital) stockholders have an equity stake in a company (i.e. they are owners), whereas bondholders have a creditor stake in a company (i.e. they are lenders). As creditors, bondholders have priority over stockholders. This means they will be repaid in advance of stockholders, but will rank behind secured creditors, in the event of bankruptcy. Another difference is that bonds usually have a defined term, or maturity, after which the bond is redeemed, whereas stocks typically remain outstanding indefinitely. An exception is an irredeemable bond, which is a perpetuity, that is, a bond with no maturity. Certificates of deposit (CDs) or short-term commercial paper are classified as money market instruments and not bonds: the main difference is the length of the term of the instrument.


title: Bond (finance)

text: The most common forms include municipal, corporate, and government bonds. Very often the bond is negotiable, that is, the ownership of the instrument can be transferred in the secondary market. This means that once the transfer agents at the bank medallion-stamp the bond, it is highly liquid on the secondary market. The price of a bond in the secondary market may differ substantially from the principal due to various factors in bond valuation.


title: Bond (finance)

text: In English, the word "" relates to the etymology of "bind". The use of the word "bond" in this sense of an "instrument binding one to pay a sum to another" dates from at least the 1590s.


title: Bond (finance)

text: Bonds are issued by public authorities, credit institutions, companies and supranational institutions in the primary markets. The most common process for issuing bonds is through underwriting. When a bond issue is underwritten, one or more securities firms or banks, forming a syndicate, buy the entire issue of bonds from the issuer and resell them to investors. The security firm takes the risk of being unable to sell on the issue to end investors. Primary issuance is arranged by "bookrunners" who arrange the bond issue, have direct contact with investors and act as advisers to the bond issuer in terms of timing and price of the bond issue. The bookrunner is listed first among all underwriters participating in the issuance in the tombstone ads commonly used to announce bonds to the public. The bookrunners' willingness to underwrite must be discussed prior to any decision on the terms of the bond issue as there may be limited demand for the bonds.


title: Bond (finance)

text: In contrast, government bonds are usually issued in an auction. In some cases, both members of the public and banks may bid for bonds. In other cases, only market makers may bid for bonds. The overall rate of return on the bond depends on both the terms of the bond and the price paid. The terms of the bond, such as the coupon, are fixed in advance and the price is determined by the market.


title: Bond (finance)

text: In the case of an underwritten bond, the underwriters will charge a fee for underwriting. An alternative process for bond issuance, which is commonly used for smaller issues and avoids this cost, is the private placement bond. Bonds sold directly to buyers may not be tradeable in the bond market.


title: Bond (finance)

text: Historically, an alternative practice of issuance was for the borrowing government authority to issue bonds over a period of time, usually at a fixed price, with volumes sold on a particular day dependent on market conditions. This was called a "tap issue" or "bond tap".


title: Bond (finance)

text: Nominal, principal, par, or face amount is the amount on which the issuer pays interest, and which, most commonly, has to be repaid at the end of the term. Some structured bonds can have a redemption amount which is different from the face amount and can be linked to the performance of particular assets.


title: Bond (finance)

text: The issuer is obligated to repay the nominal amount on the maturity date. As long as all due payments have been made, the issuer has no further obligations to the bond holders after the maturity date. The length of time until the maturity date is often referred to as the term or tenor or maturity of a bond. The maturity can be any length of time, although debt securities with a term of less than one year are generally designated money market instruments rather than bonds. Most bonds have a term shorter than 30 years. Some bonds have been issued with terms of 50 years or more, and historically there have been some issues with no maturity date (irredeemable). In the market for United States Treasury securities, there are four categories of bond maturities:


title: Bond (finance)

text: The coupon is the interest rate that the issuer pays to the holder. For fixed rate bonds, the coupon is fixed throughout the life of the bond. For floating rate notes, the coupon varies throughout the life of the bond and is based on the movement of a money market reference rate (often LIBOR).


title: Bond (finance)

text: Historically, coupons were physical attachments to the paper bond certificates, with each coupon representing an interest payment. On the interest due date, the bondholder would hand in the coupon to a bank in exchange for the interest payment. Today, interest payments are almost always paid electronically. Interest can be paid at different frequencies: generally semi-annual (every 6 months) or annual.


title: Bond (finance)

text: The yield is the rate of return received from investing in the bond. It usually refers to one of the following:


title: Bond (finance)

text: The quality of the issue refers to the probability that the bondholders will receive the amounts promised at the due dates. In other words, credit quality tells investors how likely the borrower is going to default. This will depend on a wide range of factors.


title: Bond (finance)

text: High-yield bonds are bonds that are rated below investment grade by the credit rating agencies. As these bonds are riskier than investment grade bonds, investors expect to earn a higher yield. These bonds are also called "junk bonds".


title: Bond (finance)

text: The market price of a tradable bond will be influenced, among other factors, by the amounts, currency and timing of the interest payments and capital repayment due, the quality of the bond, and the available redemption yield of other comparable bonds which can be traded in the markets.


title: Bond (finance)

text: The price can be quoted as clean or dirty. "Dirty" includes the present value of all future cash flows, including accrued interest, and is most often used in Europe. "Clean" does not include accrued interest, and is most often used in the U.S.


title: Bond (finance)

text: The issue price at which investors buy the bonds when they are first issued will typically be approximately equal to the nominal amount. The net proceeds that the issuer receives are thus the issue price, less issuance fees. The market price of the bond will vary over its life: it may trade at a premium (above par, usually because market interest rates have fallen since issue), or at a discount (price below par, if market rates have risen or there is a high probability of default on the bond).


title: Bond (finance)

text: Bonds can be categorised in several ways, such as the type of issuer, the currency, the term of the bond (length of time to maturity) and the conditions applying to the bond. The following descriptions are not mutually exclusive, and more than one of them may apply to a particular bond:


title: Bond (finance)

text: The nature of the issuer will affect the security (certainty of receiving the contracted payments) offered by the bond, and sometimes the tax treatment.


title: Bond (finance)

text: Some companies, banks, governments, and other sovereign entities may decide to issue bonds in foreign currencies as the foreign currency may appear to potential investors to be more stable and predictable than their domestic currency. Issuing bonds denominated in foreign currencies also gives issuers the ability to access investment capital available in foreign markets.


title: Bond (finance)

text: A downside is that the government loses the option to reduce its bond liabilities by inflating its domestic currency.


title: Bond (finance)

text: The proceeds from the issuance of these bonds can be used by companies to break into foreign markets, or can be converted into the issuing company's local currency to be used on existing operations through the use of foreign exchange swap hedges. Foreign issuer bonds can also be used to hedge foreign exchange rate risk. Some foreign issuer bonds are called by their nicknames, such as the "samurai bond". These can be issued by foreign issuers looking to diversify their investor base away from domestic markets. These bond issues are generally governed by the law of the market of issuance, e.g., a samurai bond, issued by an investor based in Europe, will be governed by Japanese law. Not all of the following bonds are restricted for purchase by investors in the market of issuance.


title: Bond (finance)

text: The market price of a bond is the present value of all expected future interest and principal payments of the bond, here discounted at the bond's yield to maturity (i.e. rate of return). That relationship is the definition of the redemption yield on the bond, which is likely to be close to the current market interest rate for other bonds with similar characteristics, as otherwise there would be arbitrage opportunities. The yield and price of a bond are inversely related so that when market interest rates rise, bond prices fall and vice versa. For a discussion of the mathematics see Bond valuation.


title: Bond (finance)

text: The bond's market price is usually expressed as a percentage of nominal value: 100% of face value, "at par", corresponds to a price of 100; prices can be above par (bond is priced at greater than 100), which is called trading at a premium, or below par (bond is priced at less than 100), which is called trading at a discount. The market price of a bond may be quoted including the accrued interest since the last coupon date. (Some bond markets include accrued interest in the trading price and others add it on separately when settlement is made.) The price including accrued interest is known as the "full" or "dirty price". ("See also" Accrual bond.) The price excluding accrued interest is known as the "flat" or "clean price".


title: Bond (finance)

text: Most government bonds are denominated in units of $1000 in the United States, or in units of £100 in the United Kingdom. Hence, a deep discount US bond, selling at a price of 75.26, indicates a selling price of $752.60 per bond sold. (Often, in the US, bond prices are quoted in points and thirty-seconds of a point, rather than in decimal form.) Some short-term bonds, such as the U.S. Treasury bill, are always issued at a discount, and pay par amount at maturity rather than paying coupons. This is called a discount bond.


title: Bond (finance)

text: Although bonds are not necessarily issued at par (100% of face value, corresponding to a price of 100), their prices will move towards par as they approach maturity (if the market expects the maturity payment to be made in full and on time) as this is the price the issuer will pay to redeem the bond. This is referred to as "pull to par". At the time of issue of the bond, the coupon paid, and other conditions of the bond, will have been influenced by a variety of factors, such as current market interest rates, the length of the term and the creditworthiness of the issuer. These factors are likely to change over time, so the market price of a bond will vary after it is issued. (The position is a bit more complicated for inflation-linked bonds.)


title: Bond (finance)

text: The interest payment ("coupon payment") divided by the current price of the bond is called the current yield (this is the nominal yield multiplied by the par value and divided by the price). There are other yield measures that exist such as the yield to first call, yield to worst, yield to first par call, yield to put, cash flow yield and yield to maturity. The relationship between yield and term to maturity (or alternatively between yield and the weighted mean term allowing for both interest and capital repayment) for otherwise identical bonds derives the yield curve, a graph plotting this relationship.


title: Bond (finance)

text: If the bond includes embedded options, the valuation is more difficult and combines option pricing with discounting. Depending on the type of option, the option price as calculated is either added to or subtracted from the price of the "straight" portion. See further under . This total is then the value of the bond. More sophisticated lattice- or simulation-based techniques may (also) be employed.


title: Bond (finance)

text: Bond markets, unlike stock or share markets, sometimes do not have a centralized exchange or trading system. Rather, in most developed bond markets such as the U.S., Japan and western Europe, bonds trade in decentralized, dealer-based over-the-counter markets. In such a market, liquidity is provided by dealers and other market participants committing risk capital to trading activity. In the bond market, when an investor buys or sells a bond, the counterparty to the trade is almost always a bank or securities firm acting as a dealer. In some cases, when a dealer buys a bond from an investor, the dealer carries the bond "in inventory", i.e. holds it for their own account. The dealer is then subject to risks of price fluctuation. In other cases, the dealer immediately resells the bond to another investor.


title: Bond (finance)

text: Bond markets can also differ from stock markets in that, in some markets, investors sometimes do not pay brokerage commissions to dealers with whom they buy or sell bonds. Rather, the dealers earn revenue by means of the spread, or difference, between the price at which the dealer buys a bond from one investor—the "bid" price—and the price at which he or she sells the same bond to another investor—the "ask" or "offer" price. The bid/offer spread represents the total transaction cost associated with transferring a bond from one investor to another.


title: Bond (finance)

text: Bonds are bought and traded mostly by institutions like central banks, sovereign wealth funds, pension funds, insurance companies, hedge funds, and banks. Insurance companies and pension funds have liabilities which essentially include fixed amounts payable on predetermined dates. They buy the bonds to match their liabilities, and may be compelled by law to do this. Most individuals who want to own bonds do so through bond funds. Still, in the U.S., nearly 10% of all bonds outstanding are held directly by households.


title: Bond (finance)

text: The volatility of bonds (especially short and medium dated bonds) is lower than that of equities (stocks). Thus, bonds are generally viewed as safer investments than stocks, but this perception is only partially correct. Bonds do suffer from less day-to-day volatility than stocks, and bonds' interest payments are sometimes higher than the general level of dividend payments. Bonds are often liquid – it is often fairly easy for an institution to sell a large quantity of bonds without affecting the price much, which may be more difficult for equities – and the comparative certainty of a fixed interest payment twice a year and a fixed lump sum at maturity is attractive. Bondholders also enjoy a measure of legal protection: under the law of most countries, if a company goes bankrupt, its bondholders will often receive some money back (the recovery amount), whereas the company's equity stock often ends up valueless. However, bonds can also be risky but less risky than stocks:


title: Bond (finance)

text: Bonds are also subject to various other risks such as call and prepayment risk, credit risk, reinvestment risk, liquidity risk, event risk, exchange rate risk, volatility risk, inflation risk, sovereign risk and yield curve risk. Again, some of these will only affect certain classes of investors.


title: Bond (finance)

text: Price changes in a bond will immediately affect mutual funds that hold these bonds. If the value of the bonds in their trading portfolio falls, the value of the portfolio also falls. This can be damaging for professional investors such as banks, insurance companies, pension funds and asset managers (irrespective of whether the value is immediately "marked to market" or not).


title: Bond (finance)

text: If there is any chance a holder of individual bonds may need to sell their bonds and "cash out", interest rate risk could become a real problem, conversely, bonds' market prices would increase if the prevailing interest rate were to drop, as it did from 2001 through 2003. One way to quantify the interest rate risk on a bond is in terms of its duration. Efforts to control this risk are called immunization or hedging.


title: Bond (finance)

text: There is no guarantee of how much money will remain to repay bondholders. As an example, after an accounting scandal and a Chapter 11 bankruptcy at the giant telecommunications company Worldcom, in 2004 its bondholders ended up being paid 35.7 cents on the dollar. In a bankruptcy involving reorganization or recapitalization, as opposed to liquidation, bondholders may end up having the value of their bonds reduced, often through an exchange for a smaller number of newly issued bonds.


title: Bond (finance)

text: A number of bond indices exist for the purposes of managing portfolios and measuring performance, similar to the S&P 500 or Russell Indexes for stocks. The most common American benchmarks are the Bloomberg Barclays US Aggregate (ex Lehman Aggregate), Citigroup BIG and Merrill Lynch Domestic Master. Most indices are parts of families of broader indices that can be used to measure global bond portfolios, or may be further subdivided by maturity or sector for managing specialized portfolios.


title: Patricia Gucci

text: Patricia Gucci (born 1 March 1963) is an Italian businesswoman and member of the Gucci family. She is the only daughter of Aldo Gucci and granddaughter of Guccio Gucci who founded the company in 1921.


title: Patricia Gucci

text: She is the daughter of Aldo Gucci, the patriarch of the Gucci fashion empire, and Bruna Palombo; the two met when Bruna was working at the Gucci flagship store in Rome. He was still married to the mother of his three sons, and adultery was illegal in Italy, so they lived in England. They married when Patricia was twenty-four years old. Patricia was elected to Gucci's Board of directors at age nineteen.


title: Patricia Gucci

text: In 2016, Patricia published a memoir, "In the Name of Gucci", in which she revealed that she did not learn that her father had another family and wife until she was ten years old. Her elder half-brother Paolo Gucci broke away from the family firm and tried to set up a rival company. In Aldo's last years, he was involved in a tax scandal and his sons, together with his nephew Maurizio, squeezed control of Gucci away from him. Aldo, in turn, made Patricia his sole heir. The Gucci family business was fully sold in 1993 by Patricia's cousin Maurizio Gucci.


title: Patricia Gucci

text: Gucci was married to Joseph Ruffalo, a music executive who worked with Prince and Earth, Wind & Fire. Gucci divorced Ruffalo in 2007, because he had sexually abused her daughters Alexandra Zarini and Victoria since the early 1990s. In 2020, Patricia Gucci was named in a lawsuit brought forward by her daughter Alexandra for the childhood abuse by her stepfather.


title: Credit Suisse

text: Credit Suisse Group AG is a global investment bank and financial services firm founded and based in Switzerland. Headquartered in Zürich, it maintains offices in all major financial centers around the world and is one of the nine global "Bulge Bracket" banks providing services in investment banking, private banking, asset management, and shared services. It is known for strict bank–client confidentiality and banking secrecy. The Financial Stability Board considers it to be a global systemically important bank. Credit Suisse is also primary dealer and Forex counterparty of the FED.


title: Credit Suisse

text: Credit Suisse was founded in 1856 to fund the development of Switzerland's rail system. It issued loans that helped create Switzerland's electrical grid and the European rail system. In the 1900s, it began shifting to retail banking in response to the elevation of the middle class and competition from fellow Swiss banks UBS and Julius Bär. Credit Suisse partnered with First Boston in 1978 before buying a controlling share of the bank in 1988. From 1990 to 2000, the company purchased institutions such as Winterthur Group, Swiss Volksbank, Swiss American Securities Inc. (SASI), and Bank Leu. The biggest institutional shareholders of Credit Suisse include the Qatar Investment Authority and BlackRock (about 5% each), the US mutual fund providers Harris Associates (the largest shareholder as of August 2022, with 10.1%) and Dodge & Cox, the central bank of Norway and the Saudi Arabian Olayan Group.


title: Credit Suisse

text: The company was one of the least affected banks during the global financial crisis, but afterwards began shrinking its investment business, executing layoffs and cutting costs. The bank was at the center of multiple international investigations for tax avoidance which culminated in a guilty plea and the forfeiture of US$2.6 billion in fines from 2008 to 2012. In 2021, Credit Suisse had assets under management (AuM) of over CHF 1.6 trillion.


title: Credit Suisse

text: Credit Suisse Group AG, is organised as a joint-stock company registered in Zürich that operates as a holding company. It owns the Credit Suisse bank and other interests in the financial services business. Credit Suisse is governed by a board of directors, its shareholders, and independent auditors The Board of Directors organise the annual General Meeting of Shareholders while investors with large stakes in the company determine the agenda. Shareholders elect auditors for one-year terms, approve the annual report and other financial statements, and have other powers granted by law. Shareholders elect members of the board of directors to serve a three-year term based on candidates nominated by the Chairman's and Governance Committee and the Board of Directors meet six times a year to vote on company resolutions. The Board sets Credit Suisse's business strategies and approves its compensation (remuneration) principles based on guidance from the compensation committee. It also has the authority to create committees that delegate specific management functions.


title: Credit Suisse

text: Credit Suisse has two divisions, Private Banking & Wealth Management and Investment Banking. A Shared Services department provides support functions like risk management, legal, IT, and marketing to all areas. Operations are divided into four regions: Switzerland, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, the Americas, and the Asian Pacific. Credit Suisse Private Banking has wealth management, corporate and institutional businesses. Credit Suisse Investment Banking handles securities, investment research, trading, prime brokerage, and capital procurement. Credit Suisse Asset Management sells investment classes, alternative investments, real-estate, equities, fixed income products, and other financial products.


title: Credit Suisse

text: In August 2022, it was revealed that the first shareholder of Credit Suisse is in fact American, namely Harris Associates, holding over 10% of the shares of the group. Harris Associates itself is owned by French bank Natixis.


title: Credit Suisse

text: Credit Suisse's founder, Alfred Escher, was called "the spiritual father of the railway law of 1852", for his work defeating the idea of a state-run railway system in Switzerland in favor of privatization. Escher founded Credit Suisse (originally called the Swiss Credit Institution, i.e., "Schweizerische Kreditanstalt") jointly with Allgemeine Deutsche Credit-Anstalt in 1856 primarily to provide domestic funding to railway projects, avoiding French banks that wanted to exert influence over the railway system. Escher aimed to start the company with three million shares and instead sold 218 million shares in three days. The bank was modeled after Crédit Mobilier, a bank funding railway projects in France that was founded two years prior, except Credit Suisse had a more conservative lending policy focused on short-to-medium term loans. In its first year of operation, 25 percent of the bank's revenues was from the Swiss Northeastern Railway, which was being built by Escher's company, Nordostbahn.


title: Credit Suisse

text: Credit Suisse played a substantial role in the economic development of Switzerland, helping the country develop its currency system, funding entrepreneurs and investing in the Gotthard railway, which connected Switzerland to the European rail system in 1882. Credit Suisse helped fund the creation of Switzerland's electrical grid through its participation with Elektrobank (now called Elektrowatt), a coalition of organizations that co-financed Switzerland's electrical grid. According to "The Handbook on the History of European Banks", "Switzerland's young electricity industry came to assume the same importance as support for railway construction 40 years earlier." The bank also helped fund the effort to disarm and imprison French troops that crossed into Swiss borders in the 1870 Franco-Prussian War. By the end of the war, Credit Suisse had become the largest bank in Switzerland.


title: Credit Suisse

text: Throughout the late 1800s, Credit Suisse set up banking and insurance companies in Germany, Brussels, Geneva and others (as SKA International) with the bank as a shareholder of each company. It created insurance companies like Swiss RE, Swiss Life (aka Rentenanstalt) and Schweiz. Credit Suisse had its first unprofitable year in 1886, due to losses in agriculture, venture investments, commodities, and international trade. The bank created its own sugar beet factory, bought 25,000 shares in animal breeding ventures and supported an export business, Schweizerische Exportgesellschaft, that experienced heavy losses for over-speculative investing.


title: Credit Suisse

text: In the early 1900s Credit Suisse began catering to consumers and the middle-class with deposit counters, currency exchanges and savings accounts. The first branch outside of Zürich was opened in 1905 in Basel. The bank helped companies affected by World War I restructuring, and extended loans for reconstruction efforts. During the 1920s depression, net profits and dividends were halved and employees took salary cuts. After World War II, a substantial portion of Credit Suisse's business was in foreign reconstruction efforts. Banks subsequently acquired by Credit Suisse have been linked to bank accounts used by members of the NSDAP in the 1930s. Holocaust survivors had problems trying to retrieve assets from relatives that died in concentration camps without death certificates. This led to a class action lawsuit in 1996 that settled in 2000 for $1.25 billion. The "Agreement on the Swiss Banks' Code of Conduct with Regard to the Exercise of Due Diligence" was created in the 1970s, after a Credit Suisse branch in Chiasso was exposed for illegally funneling $900 million in Italian deposits to speculative investments.


title: Credit Suisse

text: In 1978, White, Weld & Company dropped its partnership with Credit Suisse after it was bought by Merrill Lynch. To replace the partnership with White, Credit Suisse partnered with First Boston to create Credit Suisse First Boston in Europe and bought a 44 percent stake in First Boston's US operations.


title: Credit Suisse

text: In 1987, the Group acquired the blue chip London stockbrokers Buckmaster & Moore. Originally established by Irish aristocrat Charles Armytage-Moore and sportsman Walter Buckmaster, who had met at Repton School. As stockbrokers they were very well connected, had developed a good private client business, which at one time included John Maynard Keynes.


title: Credit Suisse

text: Other Credit Suisse First Boston brands were later created in Switzerland, Asia, London, New York and Tokyo. According to an article in "The New York Times", First Boston became "the superstar of the Euromarkets" by buying stakes in American companies that wanted to issue bonds. In 1988 First Boston loaned $487 million to Gibbons and Green for the purchase of the Ohio Mattress Company, which was purchased at twenty times its annual revenue. Gibbons had also borrowed $475 million in junk bonds. When the junk bonds market crashed the following year, Gibbons couldn't repay First Boston. Credit Suisse injected $725 million to keep First Boston in business, which ultimately led to the company being taken over by Credit Suisse. This became known as the "burning bed" deal, because the Federal Reserve overlooked the Glass–Steagall Act that requires separation between commercial and investment banks in order to preserve the stability of the financial markets.


title: Credit Suisse

text: In the late 1990s, Credit Suisse executed an aggressive acquisition strategy. The bank acquired Bank Leu, known as Switzerland's oldest bank, in 1990. In 1993 Credit Suisse outbid UBS for a controlling stake in Switzerland's fifth largest bank, Swiss Volksbank in a $1.1 billion deal. It also merged with Winterthur Group in 1997 for about $9 billion and acquired the asset management division of Warburg, Pincus & Co. in 1999 for $650 million. Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette was purchased for $11.5 billion in 2000.


title: Credit Suisse

text: In 1996, Credit Suisse restructured as the Credit Suisse Group with four divisions: Credit Suisse Volksbank (later called Credit Suisse Bank) for domestic banking, Credit Suisse Private Banking, Credit Suisse Asset Management, and Credit Suisse First Boston for corporate and investment banking. The restructure was expected to cost the company $800 million and result in 7,000 lost jobs, but save $560 million a year. While Credit Suisse First Boston had been struggling, Credit Suisse's overall profits had grown 20 percent over the prior year, reaching $664 million. In 1999 Japan's Financial Supervisory Agency temporarily suspended the financial-products division's license to operate in Japan for "window dressing", the practice of selling derivatives that are often used by bank clients to hide losses.


title: Credit Suisse

text: In the 2000s, Credit Suisse executed a series of restructures. In 2002 the bank was consolidated into two entities: Credit Suisse First Boston for investments and Credit Suisse Financial Services. A third unit was added in 2004 for insurance. Credit Suisse restructured again in 2004 under what it calls the "one bank" model. Under the restructuring, every board had a mix of executives from all three divisions. It also changed the compensation and commission models to encourage cross-division referrals and created a "solution partners" group that functions between the investment and private banking divisions. Following the restructure Credit Suisse's private banking division grew 19 percent per year despite the economic crisis. The firm bumped long-time rival UBS off the number one position in Euromoney's private banking poll. In 2006, Credit Suisse acknowledged misconduct for helping Iran and other countries hide transactions from US authorities and paid a $536 million settlement. The same year it merged Bank Leu AG, Clariden Holding AG, Bank Hofmann AG and BGP Banca di Gestione Patrimoniale into a new company called Clariden Leu.


title: Credit Suisse

text: The increasing importance of sustainability and the related commitments and liabilities of international standards such as the UNGC, of which the bank is a member, lead to increasingly sophisticated and ambitious risk management over the years. Credit Suisse operates a process which since 2007 uses RepRisk, a Swiss provider of ESG Risk analytics and metrics, to screen and evaluate environmental and social risks of risky transactions and due diligence.


title: Credit Suisse

text: In 2009, Yellowstone Club founder Tim Blixseth sued Credit Suisse when the bank attempted to collect on $286 million in loan debt during Yellowstone's bankruptcy proceedings. The debtor had borrowed more than $300 million for the business, but used a large portion of it for personal use before eventually filing for bankruptcy. Four lawsuits were filed from other resorts seeking $24 billion in damages alleging Credit Suisse created loans with the intention of taking over their properties upon default.


title: Credit Suisse

text: According to "The Wall Street Journal" in 2008, "Credit Suisse survived the credit crisis better than many competitors." Credit Suisse had $902 million in writedowns for subprime holdings and the same amount for leveraged loans, but it did not have to borrow from the government. Along with other banks, Credit Suisse was investigated and sued by US authorities in 2012 for bundling mortgage loans with securities, misrepresenting the risks of underlying mortgages during the housing boom. Following the crisis, Credit Suisse cut more than one-trillion in assets and made plans to cut its investment banking arm 37 percent by 2014. It reduced emphasis on investment banking and focused on private banking and wealth management. In July 2011, Credit Suisse cut 2,000 jobs in response to a weaker than expected economic recovery and later merged its asset management with the private bank group to cut additional costs.


title: Credit Suisse

text: A series of international investigations took place in the early 2000s regarding the use banking secrecy in Credit Suisse accounts for tax evasion. In 2008, the Brazilian government investigated 13 former and current Credit Suisse employees. The investigation led to arrests that year and in 2009 as part of a larger crackdown in Brazil. Four Credit Suisse bankers were accused of fraud by the US Justice Department in 2011 for helping wealthy Americans avoid taxes. In 2012, German authorities found that citizens were using insurance policies of a Bermuda-based Credit Suisse subsidiary to earn tax-free interest. In November 2012, Credit Suisse's asset management division was merged with the private banking arm. In September 2012, the Swiss government gave banks like Credit Suisse permission to provide information to the US Justice Department for tax evasion probes. In February 2014 it agreed to pay a fine of $197 million after one of its businesses served 8,500 US clients without registering its activities, leading to suspicion as to whether it was helping Americans evade taxes. It was one of 14 Swiss banks under investigation. Separately, in 2013, German authorities began to probe Credit Suisse, its private bank subsidiary Clariden Leu, and its regional subsidiary Neue Aargauer Bank for helping German citizens evade taxes. In 2012, the bank eventually entered into a €150 million settlement with the government.


title: Credit Suisse

text: In March 2014, Credit Suisse denied claims it had been drawn into a Swiss competition probe investigating potential collusion to manipulate foreign exchange rates (Forex scandal) by various Swiss and foreign banks.


title: Credit Suisse

text: In May 2014, Credit Suisse pleaded guilty to conspiring to aid tax evasion. It was the most prominent bank to plead guilty in the United States since Drexel Burnham Lambert in 1989 and the largest to do so since the Bankers Trust in 1999. "Credit Suisse conspired to help U.S. citizens hide assets in offshore accounts in order to evade paying taxes. When a bank engages in misconduct this brazen, it should expect that the Justice Department will pursue criminal prosecution to the fullest extent possible, as has happened here," Attorney General Eric H. Holder said at the time. Holder also said "This case shows that no financial institution, no matter its size or global reach, is above the law." Credit Suisse shares rose 1% on the day the $2.6 billion penalty was announced.


title: Credit Suisse

text: In March 2015, it was announced that Tidjane Thiam, the CEO of Prudential would leave to become the next CEO of Credit Suisse. In September 2016, Brian Chin was appointed Chief Executive of Global Markets and joined the executive board of the bank. At this time, it was also announced that Eric M. Varvel was appointed president and CEO of Credit Suisse Holdings (USA).


title: Credit Suisse

text: As of 2018, share prices of Credit Suisse and other Swiss banks including UBS remained mostly stagnant or flat since the 2008 financial crisis. This is seen as a result of the aftermath of the collapse of Lehman Brothers, which caused a large loss in consumer and market participant trust and confidence in the banking industry. The loss in confidence is reflected in the large loss of share prices across the Swiss banking sector after 2008, which have not recovered to pre-financial crisis levels.


title: Credit Suisse

text: In August 2019, Credit Suisse announced the formation of a new "direct banking" business unit under their Switzerland division (Swiss Universal Bank, SUB), focusing on digital retail products. The step is seen as a reaction to the emergence of FinTech competitors such as N26 or Revolut in Switzerland and shall help to better attract young clients. In July 2020, Thomas Gottstein, the new CEO of the company, announced restructuring; it was influenced as a result of the trading surge in Q2 of 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The planned restructuring is set "to reduce costs and improve efficiencies" and features some reverts of alterations brought by the previous CEO, Thiam. According to Gottstein, "These initiatives should also help to provide resilience in uncertain markets and deliver further upside when more positive economic conditions prevail."


title: Credit Suisse

text: Credit Suisse endorses a strategy called bancassurance of trying to be a single company that offers every common financial services product. The investment bank is intended for companies and wealthy individuals with more than 50,000 euro.


title: Credit Suisse

text: Credit Suisse developed the CreditRisk+ model of risk assessment in loans, which is focused exclusively on the chance of default based on the exogenous Poisson method. As of 2002 about 20 percent of Credit Suisse's revenue was from its insurance business it gained through the 1997 acquisition of Winterthur. The investment bank's insurance products are primarily popular in the domestic market and include auto, fire, property, life, disability, pension and retirement products among others. Historically 20–40 percent of the bank's revenue has been from private banking services, one of its higher profit-margin divisions.


title: Credit Suisse

text: Credit Suisse produces one of the six hedge funds following European stock indices that are used to evaluate the performance of the markets. The investment bank also has a 30 percent ownership in hedge fund investment firm York Capital Management. York sells hedge funds independently to its own clients, while Credit Suisse also offers them to private banking clients. Credit Suisse manages the financial instruments of the Dow Jones Credit Suisse long/short equity index (originally called Credit Suisse/Tremont Hedge Fund Indexes).


title: Credit Suisse

text: According to a 2011 article in SeekingAlpha, Credit Suisse's investment managers favor financial, technology and energy sector stocks. The bank's head of equity investments in Europe said the team focuses on "value with an emphasis on free cashflow". She also has an interest in companies undergoing management changes that may influence the stock price. According to a story in "The Wall Street Journal", the head of Credit Suisse's International Focus Fund keeps a portfolio of only 40–50 stocks, instead of the industry-norm of more than 100. Credit Suisse publishes its investment advice in four publications: "Compass, Viewpoints, Research" and the "Credit Suisse Investment Committee Report".


title: Credit Suisse

text: The reputation of the bank is controversial. From the 1940s until into the 2010s, beside regular customers, Credit Suisse offered criminals, corrupt politicians and controversial secret service chiefs a safe haven for their assets, despite all public declarations of a "white money" strategy.


title: Credit Suisse

text: As of 2012, Credit Suisse was a member of Wall Street's bulge bracket, a list of nine of the largest and most profitable banks. The company was one of the world's most important banks, upon which international financial stability depends. The bank was also one of "Fortune Magazine's" most admired companies.


title: Credit Suisse

text: As of 2004, Credit Suisse was first in volume of high-yield transactions, second for corporate high-yield bond insurance and third for IPO underwriting.


title: Credit Suisse

text: As of 2012, Credit Suisse was recognised as the world's best private bank by "Euromoney" Global Private Banking Survey and as the best European Equity Manager by "Global Investors". In polls by "Euromoney", it has been ranked as the top private bank and the best bank in Switzerland. in 1995, the Securities Data Company ranked Credit Suisse as the fourth best place for financial advice for mergers and acquisitions in the US and sixth for domestic equity issues. Credit Suisse was recognized by the Asset Triple A Awards and in 2005 it was ranked as the second best prime broker by "Institutional Investor".


title: Credit Suisse

text: In 2007, two Credit Suisse traders pleaded guilty to mismarking their securities positions to overvalue them by $3 billion, avoid losses, and increase their year-end bonuses. Federal prosecutors and the Securities and Exchange Commission charged that the traders' goal was to obtain lavish year-end bonuses that the mismarking would lead to. The traders engaged in what "The New York Times" called "a brazen scheme to artificially increase the price of bonds on their books to create fictitious profits". A team of traders, facing an inquiry from Credit Suisse's internal controls Price Testing group, justified their bond portfolio's inflated value by obtaining "independent" marks from other banks' trading desks.


title: Credit Suisse

text: The traders secured sham "independent" marks for illiquid securities that they held position in from friends who worked at other financial firms. Their friends generated prices that valued a number of bonds at the prices that the traders requested, which the traders then recorded as the true value of the bonds. The bank was not charged in the case. Credit Suisse's outside auditor discovered the mismarkings during an audit. Credit Suisse took a $2.65 billion write-down after discovering their traders' mismarking.


title: Credit Suisse

text: On 16 December 2009, it was announced that the U.S. Dept. of Justice reached a settlement with Credit Suisse over accusations that the bank assisted residents of International Emergency Economic Powers Act sanctioned countries to wire money in violation of the Act as well as New York law from 1995 to 2006. The settlement resulted in Credit Suisse forfeiting $536 million.