Swiss National Public Prosecutor's Office opens investigation into UBS's acquisition of Credit Suisse

2023-04-03T03:29:59.126Z

The sale, urgently, and under pressure from the authorities, had shaken the world stock markets a little more than two weeks ago. Justice is trying to find out if everything has been done properly.Swiss National Public Prosecutor's Office opens investigation into UBS's acquisition of Credit Suisse Credit Suisse was acquired by UBS in March 2023. AP - Steffen Schmidt Text by: RFI Follow 2 min The sale, urgently, and under pressure from the authorities, had shaken the world stock markets a little more than two weeks ago. Justice is trying to find out if everything has been done properly. Adve

Swiss National Public Prosecutor's Office opens investigation into UBS's acquisition of Credit Suisse

Credit Suisse was acquired by UBS in March 2023. AP - Steffen Schmidt

Text by: RFI Follow

2 min

The sale, urgently, and under pressure from the authorities, had shaken the world stock markets a little more than two weeks ago. Justice is trying to find out if everything has been done properly.

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With our correspondent in Geneva, Jérémie Lanche

In a letter to AFP, the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland said it "wishes to contribute to a Swiss financial centre of its own". This is why he will evaluate the facts reported by the media in order to look for "any criminal offence" around the takeover of Credit Suisse. Translation: the Swiss justice has doubts about the legality of the operation. Or rather, on how it was conducted. And she wonders about the role of the media who have reported in minute detail the negotiations between the two banks and the authorities. Almost minute by minute. At least the Financial Times. The editor-in-chief of the business daily did not hide her pride in which her editorial staff dealt with the case. With sources from all sides of the negotiation. To the point of having influenced the deal? The Swiss justice system may be asking itself this question. The irony is that before being confirmed to AFP, the opening of an investigation had been announced by... the Financial Times.

On the weekend of March 18 and 19, UBS, Switzerland's number one bank, was pressured by Swiss regulators and the Swiss federal government to take over its long-time rival Credit Suisse at all costs. The country's second-largest bank was in danger of simply collapsing.

The verbal support of the Swiss central bank and its massive loan of 50 billion Swiss francs (CHF), allocated the previous Wednesday, had done nothing to reassure investors, made extremely nervous by the upheavals that had shaken the banking sector in the United States for several weeks.

Considered the weak link in the banking sector in Europe, weakened by repeated scandals, encumbered by a restructuring plan that had not convinced and weighed down by more than 7 billion Swiss francs in losses in 2022, Credit Suisse risked bankruptcy and taking with it the reputation of the Swiss financial center.

After intense secret negotiations, UBS agreed to buy Credit Suisse for CHF 3 billion: a pittance. And with solid financial guarantees from the federal government and the central bank in case of unpleasant surprises discovered in the books of accounts, which UBS had not materially had time to examine in detail.

Swiss National Public Prosecutor's Office opens investigation into UBS's acquisition of Credit Suisse

Swiss National Public Prosecutor's Office opens investigation into UBS's acquisition of Credit Suisse

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