Switzerland’s UBS completes Credit Suisse takeover

Switzerland-based UBS Group AG has completed the legal takeover of longtime rival Credit Suisse Group AG. “We will bring together the collective expertise, scale and wealth management leadership of both UBS and Credit Suisse to create an even stronger combined firm,” the UBS board chair Colm Kelleher and CEO Sergio Ermotti said in an open letter.

Post the takeover, UBS is now Switzerland’s single banking titan.

The 166-year-old Credit Suisse was pummeled in recent years over stock price declines, a string of scandals and the flight of customers worried about the bank’s future. The former Schweizerische Kreditanstalt was founded by industrialist Alfred Escher in 1856 to finance the build-out of the mountainous nation’s railway network.

It had grown into global powerhouse symbolizing Switzerland’s role as a global financial center, before struggling to adapt to a changed banking landscape after the financial crisis.

UBS traces its roots back through some 370 separate institutions over 160 years, culminating in the merger of the Union Bank of Switzerland and the Swiss Bank Corporation in 1998. After emerging from a state bailout during the 2008 financial crisis, UBS built a reputation as one of the world’s largest wealth managers, catering to high- and ultra-high net worth individuals globally.