Everything is ready to say goodbye to the historic bank Credit Suisse, which will be acquired by UBS

Absorption process Credit Suissesymbolic bank Swiss which was founded 167 years ago by her rival UBS will conclude next week, probably this Monday according to the predictions of this second entity, which will become a giant with a market value similar to the gross domestic product (GDP) from Spain.

Although after the painful acquisition of March 19 to save Credit Suisse from bankruptcy, UBS announced that the merger of both banks It would be a complex job that might take a whole year, finally everything seems to have accelerated and the process will be closed in less than three months.

The name “Credit Suisse” is now expected to gradually disappear from subsidiaries and sponsorship contracts (the Swiss football league, for example, used to bear the name), although the most immediate effect will be its disappearance from the stock market. Zurich and from Wall Street.

From June 13, the logistics company Kuehne+Nagel will replace Credit Suisse in the Swiss SMI index, the main market and which gathers 20 main companies on the floor, and will also cease to be listed in New York, where it was previously listed. through the so-called American Depositary Shares (depository shares).

The banking giant doubles the value of Swiss wealth

The takeover of the second largest bank in Switzerland by the first will make UBS a giant market estimated at 1.5 trillion Swiss francs (1.54 trillion euros)of a size that doubles the GDP of Switzerland itself and that causes concern among the political and economic sectors of the country.

Recently, one of the formations in power in Switzerland for decades, the Socialist Party, proposed reducing the size of UBS, considering that it represented threats to national stability for the huge guarantees given by the Government to support the purchase of Credit Suisse.

The March 19 acquisition closed for a price of 3,000 million francs (3,080 million euros), but included guarantees and financial support from the Swiss government to UBS and Credit Suisse in the amount of 259,000 million francs (266,000 million euros).

Part of those guarantees included up to 9,000 million francs (9,200 million euros) of coverage for UBS against losses that the absorption of Credit Suisse could cause, a promise that became official in the agreement this Friday, June 9, in the absence of a day for the absorption and considering the effect which could have on the stock market.

Ermotti, fusion helmsman

The takeover process was led by UBS’s new chief executive, a local executive Sergio Ermottiappointed ten days after the acquisition precisely for quick direction fusionGiven his vast experience in banking sector Swiss.

Ermotti has argued in recent weeks that the new size UBS will achieve after the merger should not be considered as much as the possible prestige it can give to the Swiss banking market, restoring the image it has only partially lost after the Credit Suisse fiasco.

Rocked by numerous scandals and exposure to high-risk investments that caused millions in losses, Credit Suisse was eventually so battered by the stock market that it was forced to capitulate to UBS.

Its workforce has been reduced in recent months (from 50,000 at the end of 2022 to around 48,000 today) And it is expected to continue like this: analysts predict that in Switzerland alone, the new UBS will have to close around 75 branches and lay off around 10,000 jobs.

The merger has already received an initial green light from regulators in major banking markets, including those in the United States and the European Union, after those in Switzerland defended it as a tough but necessary solution to maintaining global financial stability.

Even if the merger ends with Credit Suisse, the entity and its former managers will still be subject to an investigation by a parliamentary commission (one of the first in Swiss history) approved this week by the Swiss legislature to determine who is responsible for its debacle.