Credit Suisse has reported an unexpected net profit of 41 million Swiss francs ($42.2m) for the third quarter.
The Swiss bank also said it had upped litigation provisions by 357 million francs, mainly in connection with mortgage-related matters.
It is the second consecutive quarter in which Credit Suisse has surprised the market with a profit after a rocky start to chief executive Tidjane Thiam's turnaround plan for the bank.
The Swiss bank's profit for the three months to end-September was well above the average estimate for a 120 million franc loss in a Reuters poll of five analysts.
Thiam's plan for more stable earnings by growing in wealth management and placing less reliance on investment banking has received support from major investors.
But tough markets have hampered the bank's performance in 2016 and Thiam cautioned conditions will likely remain tough.
"Looking ahead, we expect market activity to continue to be influenced by geopolitical and macro-economic uncertainty over the next several quarters and the outlook to remain challenging," Thiam said.
He has been in the job since July 2015 and outlined his blueprint for Credit Suisse in October last year.
Thiam had warned in late September that transaction levels were lower when asked about client activity in the third quarter, though he later said it was still a "good quarter" for the bank.
In the third quarter, Credit Suisse's common equity Tier 1 capital ratio - a key measure of capital strength - rose to 12% from 11.8% in the prior quarter. This is at the top end of its target of 11-12% for 2016.
Net new money inflows - a volatile but important indicator of future earnings in private banking - totalled 9.2 billion francs at Credit Suisse's three private banking divisions, Asia Pacific, Switzerland and International Wealth Management.
The 357 million franc increase in legal reserves follows last week's disclosure by rival UBS that it had set aside an extra $417m to cover potential penalties tied to residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) cases.
Credit Suisse shares are down almost 40% so far this year.
