Europe News Desk!!! Swiss banking giant UBS is in discussions to take over all or part of Credit Suisse, a day after the beleaguered banking giant saw its share price tumble despite a $54 billion cash injection. The Guardian gave this information. The boards of the two banks are set to meet separately over the weekend in talks initiated by the Swiss national bank, which provided a lifeline to Credit Suisse, and regulator Swiss FINMA, the Financial Times reported. A senior Credit Suisse executive said wealth management clients were leaving the bank as expected. The FT cited unnamed sources as saying the merger between UBS, which is valued at $56 billion, and Credit Suisse, valued at $7 billion, was Plan A to stem the collapse in confidence.
The Guardian reported that UBS was also reported to be analyzing the potential risks to its own business in taking over its Swiss counterpart. Credit Suisse has said it is a strong, global bank. We meet all regulatory requirements and basically overshoot, Chief Executive Ulrich Körner said earlier this week. Our capital, our liquidity base is very strong. Credit Suisse is by far the biggest bank to get caught in the growing banking crisis. The parent company of a Silicon Valley bank filed for bankruptcy on Friday after worried depositors pulled billions from their accounts. On Thursday, Wall Street’s biggest banks launched a rescue package for San Francisco-based First Republic, which was hit by a similar wave of withdrawals. That deal initially calmed jittery US investors, The Guardian reported, but bank shares fell again on Friday as fears grew that the crisis was looming large.
–IANS
World News Desk!!!
SGK/ANM