UBS has agreed to triple its initial outlay to buy Credit Suisse for just over 3 billion euros. DENIS BALIBOUSE / REUTERS
NARRATIVE – The Swiss authorities pressed for an emergency agreement over the weekend.
As often in financial crises, Swiss ministers, bankers and other regulators desperately searched for a solution this weekend, during the market break. The telephones heated up and meetings multiplied in Bern between the President of the Confederation, the members of the government meeting in extraordinary sessions and the bosses of Credit Suisse and UBS, Ulrich Körner and Ralph Hamers.
The first bank in the country was pushed by the authorities to buy its rival Credit Suisse, in great difficulty. An absolute urgency to hope to avoid a debacle and a wave of contagious panic on the markets this Monday.
Late Sunday afternoon, UBS finally agreed to buy its rival Credit Suisse, the Federal Council announced. For 3 billion Swiss francs (3.02 billion euros), payable in UBS shares. Suffice to say a pittance for a bank that was worth almost triple Friday at the close of the stock market. However, an equal amount…
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