Switzerland’s banking regulator Finma said it had a bankrupcy and takeover plan ready for Credit Suisse Group AG on March 19.
(Bloomberg) — Switzerland’s banking regulator Finma said it had a bankrupcy and takeover plan ready for Credit Suisse Group AG on March 19.
Finma had the two scenarios planned for on the day that the bank was rescued in a government-backed deal by larger rival UBS Group AG. The lender had faced an “unprecedented” bank run, Finma President Marlene Amstad told reporters at a press conference on Wednesday in the Swiss capital Bern.
Amstad’s comments are the first public statements on the deal since she and Finma CEO Urban Angehrn said in the Swiss press that the deal was the only viable option, while also defending the regulator’s role in the hastily-assembled transaction. They back up claims by Swiss Finance Minister Karin Keller-Sutter who said on March 25 that Credit Suisse wouldn’t have survived another day of trading amid a crisis of investor confidence.
Amstad has rejected the suggestion that Finma didn’t intervene early or aggressively enough to tackle Credit Suisse’s problems, pointing to the six public enforcement proceedings against the bank in recent years. She’s also pushed back against the notion that foreign regulators, particularly in the US, put pressure on Switzerland, telling NZZ am Sonntag recently that “the Swiss authorities decided for themselves which solution was best.”
Finma said it demanded higher liquidity buffers from Credit Suisse already in 2022.
Credit Suisse held its annual meeting on Tuesday, its last as a public company, where it faced angry shareholders. UBS holds its annual meeting later on Wednesday.
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