Now even UBS underestimates sick Credit Suisse

Big bank UBS isn’t actively missing customers from its ailing competitor, Credit Suisse. “We are not actively profiting at their expense,” UBS President Colm Kelleher said at a banking conference in London.

At the conference hosted by the “Financial Times,” Kelleher said he sees Credit Suisse as a “valued competitor” going through the crisis. However, we live in a world where customers move their funds: “When customers proactively contact us, we either let their funds come to us or go to our competitors in the US.”

Bloomberg news agency reported last week that UBS and US bank Morgan Stanley could benefit from streams from CS clients, particularly in Asia. Last week, Credit Suisse reported a massive outflow of client funds, particularly in the asset management area. Overall, CS clients withdrew about 6 percent of assets under management from early October to mid-November, corresponding to CHF 84 billion.

Weakest stock in SMI

Credit Suisse shares continued their downward trend for nearly two weeks on Wednesday. On a generally positive market, CS stocks fell 1.9 percent to CHF 2,846 in the afternoon, making them the weakest stocks in the SMI blue-chip index. Shares had previously hit an all-time low of CHF 2,828.

Investors’ distrust of the bank’s recovery has also been reflected in new highs for credit default swaps (CDS), i.e. protection against big bank default. The five-year CDS rose to new highs of 409 basis points this morning after closing at 407 the previous evening, according to Wednesday’s Reuters data. CDS was last listed at a similarly high level in early October. At the time, rumors of a massive financial imbalance by the big bank were circulating on social media. (pbe/SDA)