Speaking about the merger of UBS and Credit Suisse, Switzerland Finance Minister Karin Keller-Sutter said, “The UBS Bank and Credit Suisse’s takeover is a commercial solution and not a bailout.”
“The merger was prompted by concerns over Credit Suisse’s liquidity, which could have caused collateral damage on the Swiss financial market and posed a risk of contagion for UBS and other banks,” the statement said.
Commenting on the question asked by the reporter about the too-big-to-fail framework, the Finance Minister said, “The too-big-to-fail framework, which is typically applied to banks that cannot meet their liabilities, could not have been applied in this situation due to the unique nature of the problem.”
“The bankruptcy of Credit Suisse would have had significant economic costs and the PLB, a guarantee to the central bank, was a well-known solution in other jurisdictions,” Karin added.
Keller-Sutter further said that this solution is not a classic too-big-to-fail scenario, but a confidence crisis. Instead, the decision to merge UBS and Credit Suisse was the best solution, even though it resulted in an even bigger bank.