Katherine Doherty And Jenny Surane Bloomberg

The long-brewing troubles at Credit Suisse Group AG exploded into a full-blown crisis Wednesday as its stock and bonds cratered and some of the world's biggest banks raced to shield their finances from the potential fallout.

Even for Citigroup Inc., it was big money. On Wednesday, loan operations staff at the New York bank wired $900 million, seemingly on behalf of Revlon Inc., to lenders of the troubled cosmetics giant controlled by billionaire Ron Perelman.

The long-brewing troubles at Credit Suisse Group AG exploded into a full-blown crisis Wednesday as its stock and bonds cratered and some of the world's biggest banks raced to shield their finances from the potential fallout.

Even for Citigroup Inc., it was big money. On Wednesday, loan operations staff at the New York bank wired $900 million, seemingly on behalf of Revlon Inc., to lenders of the troubled cosmetics giant controlled by billionaire Ron Perelman.