There was a merger between the two largest and oldest Swiss banks UBS and Credit Suisse: the former acquired the latter, the Tagblatt newspaper writes, citing a press conference by President Alain Berset.
The president said the Federal Council “welcomes the acquisition of UBS Credit Suisse.” According to him, this transaction “is of great importance not only for Switzerland, but also for the international financial center in terms of restoring confidence.” Berset also said the authorities had decided to provide both banks with a 100 billion Swiss franc ($108 billion) liquidity guarantee in addition to a 50 billion franc ($54 billion) loan.
In turn, Finance Minister Karin Keller-Sutter said that the country’s government has created the necessary legal framework for providing assistance to CS by providing the National Bank of the country (SNB) with additional default guarantees for loans with liquidity. In addition, the authorities allocated $9 billion Swiss francs (about $10 billion) to UBS to cover potential losses incurred by the bank as part of the deal.
UBS and Credit Suisse are systemically important banks in Switzerland. Both have over 150 years of history: UBS was founded in 1862, Credit Suisse in 1856.
Recall that on March 15, Credit Suisse experienced the largest drop in shares in the history of the bank: quotes fell by 30.8%, to 1.55 Swiss francs, as a result of trading, the fall was 24.2%, to 1.7 Swiss francs.
Source: Rosbalt
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