CEO Tidjane Thiam sites beside Chairman Urs Rohner of Swiss bank Credit Suisse as he addresses the audience at the bank's extraordinary shareholder meeting in Zurich, Switzerland May 18, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann

ZURICH (Reuters) - Credit Suisse is on track to hit its targeted cost base by end-2018, Chairman Urs Rohner said on Thursday, part of a broad restructure of Switzerland’s second-biggest bank.

“Accordingly, we are well on track to achieve a cost target of 17 billion Swiss francs ($17.4 billion) by the end of 2018, which is significantly lower than our original cost target of 18.5 billion Swiss francs,” Rohner said in a speech at Credit Suisse’s extraordinary general meeting.

Credit Suisse shareholders are voting the board’s proposal to raise around 4 billion francs to get its financial strength on a par with rivals.