UBS buys Credit Suisse for $2 billion

In a financial manual operation, the Swiss authorities carried out the emergency rescue of Credit Suisse over the weekend in view of the risk that the massive outflows of funds from the Swiss entity would end up infecting its financial system and that of the rest of the planet.

Oliver Thansan
Oliver Thansan
19 March 2023 Sunday 10:40
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UBS buys Credit Suisse for $2 billion

In a financial manual operation, the Swiss authorities carried out the emergency rescue of Credit Suisse over the weekend in view of the risk that the massive outflows of funds from the Swiss entity would end up infecting its financial system and that of the rest of the planet. .

The country's leading bank, UBS, has accepted, after strong public pressure, to acquire the entire problematic Credit Suisse for more than 2,000 million euros, according to the Financial Times, which points out the pressure that the leading Swiss bank has received to expand the offer of one million euros presented this morning.

The result will give rise to one of the largest systemically important financial institutions in the world and the assets of 1,100 million euros of UBS are added to the 575 million of the rescued.

The Swiss authorities have called a press conference for Sunday night to present the details of the operation, which must be made clear before one o'clock in the morning Spanish time, which is the time when the Tokyo stock market opens.

It will be then when the market responds if the rescue operation orchestrated during a dizzying weekend is sufficiently important to stop the contagion to the rest of the European and world financial markets.

Credti Suisse has been the first European bank affected by the bankruptcy of the American SVK and nobody wanted there to be another one. Once the stock market crash on Friday confirmed that the injection of public funds of 54,000 million euros from the Swiss central bank had not been enough to restore confidence to customers, the rescue operation was activated.

UBS was from the first moment the main bet of the Swiss Government to seal the operation in the 24 hours of the weekend. It was crucial that the situation was sealed before 1am Spanish time, which is when the Asian markets open. Without sufficient guarantees, the withdrawal of funds from Credit Suisse could continue to trigger an undesired domino effect, which this operation hopes to have ended.

For this reason, the Swiss financial authorities have been working at forced marches throughout the weekend to modify the legislation that required a period of two weeks for the shareholders of a financial institution to approve the purchase by a competitor. Some private guarantees that have been blown up in favor of the stability of the financial system as a whole.

The keys to the acquisition happen because UBS takes over all the shares of its, until now main competitor in Switzerland, and all its top management, such as the CEO, Ralph Hamers (57), will pilot the new Swiss financial super institution, according to the newspaper Handelzeitung. Although everything is yet to be outlined

In the rescue negotiations, not only the Swiss authorities have participated. The financial press of the country and points out that the Bank of England has indicated to its international peers and UBS that it will support the agreement and the US FED would have manifested itself along the same lines.