Bloomberg: UBS was preparing to buy bankrupt Credit Suisse three years before it went bankrupt 14:08

The management of Switzerland’s largest bank UBS is preparing for an agreement to take over Credit Suisse, the country’s second largest credit institution for the past three years. The plan was developed by Axel Weber, former chairman of the UBS Board of Directors, and Colm Kelleher, current chairman. informs Bloomberg agency, citing the source.

The completion of the merger between UBS and Credit Suisse (CS) was announced on 19 March 2023. As a result, CS actually ceased to exist after 167 years from its inception. After the deal, which was worth 3 billion francs or 3.3 billion dollars, some shareholders, including Guido Roethlisberger, accused The Swiss government cannot prevent one of the country’s largest banks from failing.

“When Colm Kelleher became president last April, he took over from his predecessor, Axel Weber, the feasibility studies stretching back to at least 2020 on what the takeover of Credit Suisse Group AG would look like. Earlier this year, after clients withdrew tens of billions of dollars from their accounts, Kelleher signed up to Morgan Stanley. He urged a small group of senior advisors to expand contingency planning.

At the same time, they were largely unaware of the secret negotiations at the American bank itself between the UBS Chairman and some employees of Morgan Stanley regarding the merger of UBS and Credit Suisse. specifies.

“The project was top secret, and few people at the US bank knew what their senior colleagues in mergers and financial services were working on with a narrow circle of UBS executives,” the note said.

April 4 Bloomberg reported About possible criminal investigations in the merger of UBS and Credit Suisse. The investigation is led by representatives of the Swiss Federal Prosecutor’s Office. The deal, signed last month, is expected to cut overall headcount by 30%, with 11,000 layoffs in Switzerland and 25,000 worldwide.