Axel Lehmann, chairman of Credit Suisse Group AG, Colm Kelleher, chairman of UBS Group AG, Karin Keller-Sutter, Switzerland’s finance minister, Alain Berset, Switzerland’s president, Thomas Jordan, president of the Swiss National Bank (SNB), Marlene Amstad, chairperson of the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA), left to proper, throughout a information convention in Bern, Switzerland, on Sunday, March 19, 2023.
Pascal Mora | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Following Credit Suisse‘s “emergency rescue” by rival UBS, Swiss authorities positioned a heavy emphasis on the function of U.S. regional banking collapses in pushing the stricken Swiss lender to the brink.
Credit Suisse’s most up-to-date share value plunge started with the collapse of U.S.-based Silicon Valley Bank, however was compounded when the 167-year-old Swiss establishment introduced that it had discovered “material weaknesses” in its monetary reporting procedures.
Confirmation from high investor the Saudi National Bank that it couldn’t present any extra funding to Credit Suisse then offered the ultimate blow, prompting the announcement of a mortgage of as much as 50 billion Swiss francs ($54.2 billion) from the Swiss National Bank. By that time, Credit Suisse shares had been down by round 98% from their all-time excessive in April 2007.
The mortgage intervention ultimately failed to revive investor confidence and Swiss authorities brokered the financial institution’s emergency sale to UBS for 3 billion Swiss francs over the weekend.
“The latest developments that emanated from the banks in the U.S. hit us at the most unfavorable moment. One time, like last year, we were able to overcome the deep market uncertainty, but not this second time,” Credit Suisse Chairman Axel Lehmann advised a press convention on Sunday evening.
“The accelerating loss of confidence and the escalation over the last few days have made it clear that Credit Suisse can no longer exist in its current form. We are happy to have found a solution, which I’m convinced will bring lasting stability and security for clients, staff, financial markets and to Switzerland.”
SNB Chairman Thomas Jordan additionally lamented the “U.S. banking crisis” for accelerating a “loss of confidence in Switzerland” which had repercussions for Credit Suisse’s liquidity.
However, the downward spiral of Credit Suisse’s share value and mounting asset outflows had been underway lengthy earlier than the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank earlier this month. Swiss regulator FINMA has come underneath fireplace for permitting the state of affairs to deteriorate as the financial institution spent years mired in losses and scandal.
Mark Yallop, chairman of the U.Okay.’s Financial Markets Standards Board and former U.Okay. CEO at UBS, advised CNBC on Tuesday that he agreed with the broad evaluation that Credit Suisse’s downfall was “idiosyncratic.”
“It’s unfortunate that the problems with some of the smaller U.S. banks in the last two or three weeks happened at the same time as this issue with Credit Suisse but the two are completely different and very largely unrelated,” he mentioned.
“The issues at Credit Suisse are to do with a long history of revolving doors at the top of the firm in management terms, a changing plan, and on top of a series of operational risk and control and compliance problems.”
The ultimate straw that despatched the share value to an all-time low forward of a 50 billion mortgage from the SNB final Thursday, which ultimately failed to revive market confidence in the financial institution, was the announcement from high investor the Saudi National Bank that it couldn’t present any extra funding to Credit Suisse.
“One never knows with a bank collapse when the moment of crisis will come, but at that point, that was the moment when investors finally threw in the towel and said enough is enough, and the actions that we saw over the weekend became pretty much inevitable,” Yallop added.
What’s extra, swift motion from Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department has largely been credited with efficiently stemming any potential contagion to the U.S. monetary system, which begs the query of how a lot of the blame for Credit Suisse’s demise can actually be apportioned to the SVB collapse.
By distinction, the Swiss banking and regulatory system has come underneath fireplace.
Steven Glass, managing director and analyst at Pella Funds Management, advised CNBC final week that the plunge in Credit Suisse’s share value had been a very long time coming, and that the lack of confidence of shoppers was truly crystalized by the financial institution’s publicity to the Greensill Capital collapse in 2021.
“The problem with Greensill, it was actually a huge issue, because that fund was marketed to a whole lot of [Credit Suisse’s] high-net-worth individual clients as a very safe fund, as a way to get yield in a low-yield world, and when that blew up, a whole lot of their franchise lost money and they basically lost trust in Credit Suisse,” Glass advised CNBC’s “Capital Connection.”
In the aftermath of 9/11, new rules pressured Swiss banks to desert the consumer secrecy that for hundreds of years shaped their modus operandi, and banks like Credit Suisse took on better danger in a bid to retain their profitability and stop high-net-worth shoppers from taking their cash elsewhere, Glass argued.
He prompt that on this context, Credit Suisse shedding the belief of its remaining high-net-worth people by means of Greensill, and a litany of different points down the years, meant the financial institution “shot itself in the foot.”
“Yes, this has come at the same time as SVB and yes as Signature Bank and we can see why one might say it’s a broader banking crisis, but in actual fact, what we believe is that a lot of those banks actually had a problem with their business model, more than there being an overt banking crisis,” Glass concluded.
This was echoed by Octavio Marenzi, CEO of Opimas, who advised CNBC’s Capital Connection on Tuesday that the Credit Suisse debacle meant Switzerland’s “carefully crafted, honed reputation” for monetary stability “lies in tatters.”
