After 167 years, the end of the bank is sealed today: Credit Suisse is now entrusted to the museum

UBS wants to legally complete the takeover of Credit Suisse on Monday. The stock will be delisted on Tuesday. This officially marks the end of Credit Suisse as an independent bank.

Protector of merchants and thieves

The installation in the Finance Museum demonstrates how important Credit Suisse is to Switzerland’s economic development. There you can listen to two men and a god talk about the Swiss financial centre: Alfred Escher (1819-1882), father of modern Switzerland and founder of the Schweizerische Kreditanstalt (SKA), the predecessor of CS. Robert Comtesse (1847–1922), Member of the Federal Council and initiator of the establishment of the Swiss National Bank in 1906. and Hermes.

The Greek god did not go on tour by chance. Hermes is a symbol of prosperity. Thanks to credit institutions such as SKA, Switzerland managed to transform into an industrial state.. SKA began its operations on 16 July 1856 and quickly became one of the largest commercial banks in Switzerland, for example financing the expansion of the railway. But Hermes is also the protector of merchants and thieves. He is considered a busy trickster in Greek mythology.

never ending scandals

Museums-Escher emphasizes that the basic idea of ​​credit institutions is profit, not greed. Additionally, trust is the beginning and end of everything, but that didn’t always work out from the start. Credit transactions and speculation were associated with high risks. After major losses in the mid-1860s, the SKA had to carry out extensive restructuring. CS first made headlines in 1977 with the Chiasso scandal, a billion-dollar fraud.

With the expansion of international trade in the 1980s came high risks, high profits, but also high losses and high bonuses anyway. Billions of fines for aiding and abetting tax evasion, or a billion-dollar debacle at Greensill or Archegos were just the tip of the iceberg.

And suddenly the end was near

Until trust in CS was severely shaken – and Hermes resigned as patron saint. After years of mismanagement, the rumors were enough to shake confidence in CS. Also, almost no one believed that the bank could make money again in the medium term.

On March 19, the CS recovery was supposed to be communicated through the takeover by UBS. Less than three months later, this is now legally complete. UBS will retain the Credit Suisse brand name for now. On the other hand, many things will soon end in a museum exhibit.