Financial services giant Credit Suisse is sacking 4,000 people to counteract serious loses.

Credit Suisse has reported a fourth-quarter loss of AU$7.4 billion, down from a net profit of AU$966 million in the year-earlier period.

The job cuts are expected to save the bank about 1.2 billion Swiss francs (AU$1.6 billion) per year.

The company says the poor performance is linked to a number of different factors, including falling oil prices, shifting monetary policies at global central banks, the strength of the Swiss franc, and China’s slowing economic growth.

The release of the data saw Credit Suisse shares fall to a 25-year low.

The company says it has a goal to more than double its pretax profit by 2018 by shrinking the volatile trading business and building up wealth management in Asia.

“We view these as very poor results,” Citigroup analysts wrote in a note to clients.

“We do not believe the 2018 targets are achievable. We expect near- term profits will continue to suffer as the bank restructures.”

Citigroup has kept its ‘buy’ rating on the shares.

But the very is not entirely grey for Credit Suisse executives, with the bank's common equity Tier 1 ratio (a measure of financial strength) sitting at 11.4 per cent. This rating jumped from 10.1 per cent this time last year, after the bank tapped investors for about 6 billion francs.

The figures are also a symptom of the times, as banks around the world shrink their investment-banking divisions to meet more strict capital requirements.

Deutsche Bank has recently announced it securities unit slipped into a loss in the fourth quarter, while UBS has reported a drop in profit for its wealth-management division and investment bank as well.