class=”sc-3778e872-0 gWjAEa”>
Lights out at Credit Suisse! The traditional company with a history of 167 years is no more – the bank has been swallowed by its big rival UBS for a ridiculous 3 billion francs. Blame for disaster? A storm of social media shit last fall. At least that’s what you might think if you listened to the President of Finma and the President of CS at the press conference of the Federal Council on Sunday evening.
Marlene Amstad (54) specifically addressed this in her speech, saying, “Last fall, rumors on social media triggered massive cash outflows at Credit Suisse.” Axel Lehmann (64) said, “It had a huge impact on us.”
Scary tweet from Australia
David Taylor, an Australian TV reporter from ABC, was behind the rumors last fall. One Saturday night in October, he tweeted: “Good sources tell me he’s on the verge of a major international investment bank.”
Taylor didn’t name Credit Suisse – but the tweet went viral and sparked a storm of speculation about CS. In the following hours, wild rumors circulated on the Reddit internet forum and Twitter. CS shares were down 10 percent as trading began Monday morning.
TV reporter Taylor was then instructed by her employer, ABC, to delete the tweet. But the damage had already been done.
Billions of dollars withdrawn from CS
According to CS President Axel Lehmann and Finma Director Marlene Amstad, these rumors are said to have played a significant role in the bank’s collapse. Customers are said to have lost their trust in the second largest Swiss bank because of this and have withdrawn billions of dollars from CS.
It’s hard to assess how big the impact of this single tweet from David Taylor really was. The truth is that the CS share price never recovered after that. David Taylor has yet to respond to a Blick request.
Source :Blick
I’m Tim David and I work as an author for 24 Instant News, covering the Market section. With a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism, my mission is to provide accurate, timely and insightful news coverage that helps our readers stay informed about the latest trends in the market. My writing style is focused on making complex economic topics easy to understand for everyone.
