Credit Suisse has kicked off Europe’s earnings season with a “solid” set of results at its investment bank, where credit and mortgage trading helped it deliver better-than-expected performance in fixed income.

The investment bank's second-quarter profits before tax declined 11.4% to Sfr1 billion ($1.1 billion) from Sfr1.2 billion in the second quarter last year. That figure excludes results from a non-strategic unit housing fixed income and rates businesses in wind-down - which posted a loss that was narrower than a year ago.