The takeover of Credit Suisse by UBS, completed in June, has allowed the second bank to have access to information on the first’s private banking clients, which is now seeking to break relations with some of them, especially those linked to Russia. According to the German-language Swiss newspaper ‘NZZ am Sonntag’, UBS seeks to destroy between 50 and 75% of these Russian private clients at Credit Suisse for fear that these businesses will give away their reputation.
UBS sources quoted by the newspaper point out that the matter is particularly delicate but that in general the bank has a more “conservative” profile than its old rival, which it had to acquire in March of this year at the request of the Swiss government to save it from bankruptcy. While UBS reduced its activities with Russian clients after the start of the invasion of Ukraine, Credit Suisse was more active than in even earlier times, doing extensive business especially with investors with Russian passports but resident in other nations.
According to sources in the newspaper, UBS seeks after the takeover “to anchor its risk management principles and its corporate structure throughout the organization”, which now also includes Credit Suisse. UBS acquired Credit Suisse for just 3,000 million Swiss francs (3,100 million euros) in an emergency operation that had extensive credit guarantees from the Swiss government. UBS titles experience moderate falls after the news and register a slowdown of 0.36%, to 19.18 Swiss francs (just under 20 euros).
The Swiss economic news agency ‘AWP’ has indicated that the Swiss Association for the Protection of Shareholders could request compensation for the former owners of Credit Suisse shares, for which it has begun the search for those possibly affected by the operation. The approximate value on the Stock Market of Credit Suisse at the time of the purchase was about 7.3 billion francs (7.6 billion euros), but the price offered by the authorities and accepted by UBS was less than half. In cases of mergers, sources from the association point out, shareholders would receive the stock market value as compensation and even an added bonus.
