An industry culture of deference by risk managers to successful traders could be one possible explanation for the failures that led to Credit Suisse marking down trading positions by $2.85bn this week, senior investment bankers said.

The Swiss bank was under mounting pressure on Wednesday to quickly complete its review of how a handful of its traders failed to update valuations of their structured credit positions to reflect market movements in January and February. The mispricing was picked up by an ad-hoc review of the positions but only after the losses had been allowed to swell over several days.