UBS to buy Credit Suisse
GENEVA — Banking giant UBS is buying troubled rival Credit Suisse for almost $3.25 billion, in a deal orchestrated by regulators in an effort to avoid further market-shaking turmoil in the global banking system.
Swiss authorities pushed for UBS to take over its smaller rival after a plan for Credit Suisse to borrow up to 50 billion francs ($F119.40 billion) failed to reassure investors and the bank’s customers. Shares of Credit Suisse and other banks plunged this week after the failure of two banks in the US sparked concerns about other potentially shaky institutions in the global financial system. Credit Suisse is among the 30 financial institutions known as globally systemically important banks, and authorities worried about the fallout if it were to fail.
The deal was “one of great breadth for the stability of international finance,” said Swiss President Alain Berset as he announced it Sunday night.
“An uncontrolled collapse of Credit Suisse would lead to incalculable consequences for the country and the international financial system.”
Switzerland’s executive branch, a seven-member governing body that includes Berset, passed an emergency ordinance allowing the merger to go through without shareholder approval.
Credit Suisse chairman Axel Lehmann called the sale “a clear turning point”.
A man films with his mobile phone to a burning police vehicle following the clashes between police and the supporters of former Prime Minister Imran Khan, at outside the a court, in Islamabad, Pakistan.