Swiss Finance Minister: There are no political obstacles to the acquisition of “Credit Suisse”
Swiss Finance Minister Karin Keller-Sutter said in an interview published on Saturday that the state-sponsored takeover of Credit Suisse by UBS in a multi-billion deal should proceed smoothly without political hurdles.
It is scheduled that the Swiss Parliament will hold an extraordinary session in a few days, to discuss the emergency merger process that was coordinated by the Swiss authorities, after the “Credit Suisse” approached collapse.
Nearly 260 billion Swiss francs ($287 billion) in cash and state guarantees were provided to support the takeover and avert a financial meltdown that might have triggered the bank’s out-of-control collapse.
“There is a merger agreement between UBS and Credit Suisse, and the government on its part pledged to the National Bank to provide liquidity to Credit Suisse in order to ensure stability,” Keller Suter told Finance und Wirtschaft.
“The warranty agreement with UPS is still being discussed. In many of the committee meetings, I get the impression that the politicians certainly don’t want to spoil the acquisition,” she added. “I don’t see any stumbling blocks at the moment,” she added.
“The main objective of the Federal Council is to ensure the stability of the Swiss economy and the Swiss financial position and to prevent a global financial crisis,” she said.
“Depending on the circumstances, that was and still is the best option, and also places the least burden on the state and taxpayers,” she added.
The assets of the new merged bank will be worth $ 1.6 trillion, which are twice the size of the Swiss economy, and the number of employees is more than 120,000 employees, and Claire Sutter said that the structure of “UBS” will have to be considered in the future.
“UPS will have to own more shares after the takeover. This will force them to scale back,” she added.
(Reuters)
