A leading Swiss banking indicator published on Wednesday shows that banks are more pessimistic about the state of their business now than they were in the summer.

The indicator conducted by the Swiss Economic Institute (KOF) uses a survey to measure the business and employment mood and outlook in the banking sector.

It is the first time since the start of 2010 when the sector began to recover from the economic crisis that the majority of the institutions surveyed said that affairs were worse than they had been at the time of the last indicator which was issued in July.

The respondents were particularly pessimistic about employment prospects. Switzerland’s two biggest banks – Credit Suisse and UBS – have already both announced major staff cuts, and the indicator shows that more job cuts are to be expected in the sector in the next few months.

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