Future of Credit Suisse hangs in the balance as efforts intensify to rescue stricken bank
Credit Suisse’s future hangs in the balance as efforts to rescue the stricken bank intensify amid a growing global banking crisis
- UBS and BlackRock have reportedly drawn up plans for a Credit Suisse takeover
Efforts to stabilize the global banking system intensified today as the future of crisis-hit Credit Suisse hung in the balance.
The Swiss bank, which employs around 5,000 people in London, is up for sale, and rival Swiss lender UBS is seeking to bid for all or part of the affected bank.
American investment giant BlackRock has also reportedly drawn up plans for an acquisition.
Experts say any deals should be done before financial markets open tomorrow to avoid more panic selling.
The bank’s fate matters because it is one of 30 global banks that are considered ‘systemically important’, or too big to fail.
Efforts to stabilize the global banking system intensified today as the future of crisis-hit Credit Suisse hung in the balance.
The only British banks in that league are HSBC, Barclays and Standard Chartered.
More than £400 billion was wiped from the value of global bank shares last week following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank in the US.
In his Budget last week, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said rules introduced since the 2008 financial crisis meant the UK banking system “remains safe, sound and well capitalised”.
He also highlighted last week’s sale of Silicon Valley Bank’s UK arm to HSBC, which had protected customer deposits ‘at no cost to the taxpayer’.
A possible Credit Suisse bailout would end years of turmoil at the 167-year-old bank. It has been dogged by a series of scandals and multi-million dollar losses.
The bank took an £8bn hit in 2021 following the collapse of specialist finance firm Greensill Capital.