To prevent the country's second largest bank from going bankrupt, the Confederation and the Swiss central bank put billions of francs of liquidity on the table and orchestrated its emergency takeover by its competitor UBS in mid-March.
The premiums that the bank has to pay to repay the borrowed cash generated "some 100 million francs" for the Confederation, Karine Keller-Sutter told the Tages-Anzeiger, adding that this amount concerns only the part borrowed from the state, and not from the central bank.
The state had made available 9 billion Swiss francs while the central bank had allowed it to borrow up to 200 billion francs, of which 100 million had a state guarantee.
A few days before the announcement of its takeover by UBS, the central bank had already launched a first lifeline to Credit Suisse during a panic on the financial markets by allowing it to borrow up to 50 billion francs in liquidity.
Regarding the share borrowed from the state, the amount of cash aid that Credit Suisse still has to repay amounts to about CHF 5 billion, the finance minister said.
"I think it should be fully reimbursed soon," she said.
With the collapse of the American bank SVB, a panic had gripped the markets, plunging the bank Credit Suisse, which was perceived as the weak link in the banking sector in Europe after a series of scandals.
Under pressure from the authorities, UBS agreed on 19 March to buy its competitor for the sum of 3 billion francs to avoid its collapse. Voices have since been raised to strengthen legislation on banks considered too big to fail.
This merger of the country's two largest banks will bring out a colossus at the head of 5,000 billion dollars of invested assets, which raises serious concerns for competition and employment in Switzerland as well as for the stability of the Swiss financial system given its weight in the Swiss economy.
© 2023 AFP