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The UK’s central bank has said banks are “safe” after regulators agreed a rescue deal for Credit Suisse aimed at preventing fears over banks spreading.
The bank was bought by rival UBS in a Swiss government-backed deal on Sunday after regulators worked frantically round the clock to secure a deal.
It comes amid fears over the global financial system after two smaller US banks failed in recent weeks.
Despite the swift action by regulators, stock markets in the UK and Asia fell.
London’s FTSE 100 index was down 1.6% in early trading, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 lost 1.4%. The Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong fell 2.6%.
Shares in British banks were also hit in London trading, extending losses from last week, which was their worst weekly performance in more than a year. Shares in UBS were down 12% following its acquisition of Credit Suisse.
However, experts are not forecasting a repeat of the 2008 financial crisis when the failure of a number of big banks sparked a global recession.
The Swiss National Bank said the rescue deal for Credit Suisse was the best way to restore the confidence of financial markets and to manage risks to the economy.
The last-minute deal valued Credit Suisse at just over $3.15bn (£2.6bn), a fraction of its $8bn price tag on Friday.
But the sale has achieved what regulators set out to do – secure a result before the financial markets opened on Monday.
Mark Yallop, the former UK chief executive of UBS, said the his former employer’s purchase of Credit Suisse “should” do the job of reassuring investors.
“This is a takeover of a challenged institution with particular idiosyncratic problems that relate to it specifically [and are] not reflective of broader issues in the banking markets,” he told the BBC’s Today programme.
“I think this transaction will definitely stabilise [the bank] and should bring a good degree of confidence back to the banking market more generally.”
Mr Yallop suggested the sale of Credit Suisse should be viewed as a separate event to failure of two smaller banks in the US, which he said had been hit by the impact of rising interest rates.
The Bank of England, along with the Bank of Japan, Bank of Canada, the European Central Bank, US Federal Reserve and Swiss National Bank, said the move served as an “important backstop to ease strains in global funding markets” and take the pressure off banks.
The chairmen of both banks spoke at a news conference in Bern on Sunday
In a statement following UBS’s takeover of Credit Suisse, Switzerland’s central bank said the deal protected the Swiss economy “in this exceptional situation”.
The 167-year-old bank is loss-making and has faced a string of problems in recent years, including money laundering charges.
It was given an emergency $54bn lifeline from the Swiss National Bank on Wednesday in a bid to reassure markets, but Credit Suisse shares tumbled 24%, meaning a rescue deal was needed.
Speaking in the Swiss capital Bern after Sunday night’s announcement, UBS chairman Colm Kelleher said the takeover had been “attractive” for UBS shareholders, but described it as “an emergency rescue”.
Mr Kelleher said UBS would be winding down the investment banking part of Credit Suisse.
The UBS chairman said it was “too early” to say what would happen about jobs. The Swiss bank has around 74,000 staff, around 5,000 of them in the UK.
“We need to do this in a rational way thoughtfully, when we’ve sat down and analysed what we need to do,” he said.
Other global financial institutions praised the deal.
The Bank of England said it welcomed the “comprehensive set of actions” set out by the Swiss authorities.
“We have been engaging closely with international counterparts throughout the preparations for today’s announcements and will continue to support their implementation.”
It added the UK banking system was “well capitalised and funded, and remains safe and sound”.
Image source, Getty Images
Christine Lagarde, president of the European Central Bank, said she welcomed the “swift action” of the Swiss authorities.
“The euro area banking sector is resilient, with strong capital and liquidity positions,” Ms Lagarde added.
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell both said the US banking system remained “resilient”.
Credit Suisse has become the latest and most important casualty of a crisis of confidence that has already seen the failure of two mid-sized US banks and an emergency industry whip-round for another. But this is different. Switzerland’s second biggest lender was considered one of the top 30 most important banks in the world – which is why this takeover was rushed through by the Swiss authorities.
Although the reasons for each failure differ slightly, the main factor has been a sharp rise in global interest rates which has hit the value of even safe investments that banks keep some of their money in. That has spooked investors and seen the share prices of all banks fall with those considered weakest hit hardest.
The financial authorities in the EU, US and UK are saying they support this deal, stressing that banks are strong and people’s savings and deposits are safe.
The acid test as to whether this Swiss rescue has calmed nerves in the financial world will be when financial markets open on Monday – which is why it was so important to get this done on Sunday night.
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