So the Swiss government was worried about a domino effect that would put other big international banks at risk. KARIN KELLER-SUTTER: The bankruptcy of Credit Suisse would have had a collateral damage, a huge collateral damage, on the Swiss financial market, also risk of contagion for UBS and other banks and also internationally.įADEL: The risk of contagion. At a press conference last night, Karin Keller-Sutter, head of Switzerland's federal department of finance, explained why they were working so fast. The government took the unusual move of bypassing a vote by Credit Suisse shareholders because they were in a rush to do this before markets opened on Monday morning. So over the weekend, the Swiss government brokered a deal for UBS to take over Credit Suisse. But it didn't restore investor confidence. Switzerland's central bank tried to help last week with a $50 Billion injection of capital. And customers had been withdrawing money for months. But it's been weakened in recent years by scandals. SCHMITZ: Credit Suisse is not a small bank. that began with Silicon Valley Bank and then spread to other small banks. And this was spurred in part by Credit Suisse's mismanagement, but also in part by bank failures in the U.S. Last week, Credit Suisse lost around a fifth of its value in a single day. ROB SCHMITZ, BYLINE: Good morning, Leila.įADEL: So Switzerland's biggest bank just got bigger by taking over the country's second biggest bank. Now UBS has bought it cheap as part of a government-brokered plan to restore confidence.įADEL: But has it? NPR's Rob Schmitz joins us now from Berlin to talk about this. The bank was under pressure after other banks failed and investors lost confidence in banking stocks. People following the news have seen and heard that name in recent days. To some English speakers, that may look on the page like Credit Suisse.
One big Swiss bank is buying a competitor that's in trouble.
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