2023-08-14 16:57:06
Less than six months following the takeover of Credit Suisse, UBS announced on Friday that it no longer needed liquidity guarantees from the government and the SNB. A rapid “end of crisis” which calls into question the reaction of the Federal Council. But for Karin Keller-Sutter, in March there was little choice to stabilize the situation.
On Friday, the Swiss National Bank (SNB) decided, at the request of UBS, to lift the guarantee loan agreements of up to 100 billion francs granted as part of the takeover of Credit Suisse. The Swiss banking juggernaut has also terminated the guarantee contract once morest losses, up to nine billion francs, concluded with the Confederation.
>> Read regarding it: Takeover of Credit Suisse: UBS renounces guarantees and loans from the Confederation and the SNB
It therefore seems that the takeover of Credit Suisse is finally “settled” and this speed questions the decisions of the Federal Council, suspected by some of having overreacted.
“I believe that when we say that, we underestimate the situation in which Credit Suisse found itself in these days of mid-March”, retorts the one who had to manage the file urgently, namely Federal Councilor Karin Keller- Sutter.
170 billion requested
In an interview Monday evening on the program Forum, the Minister of Finance explained that on Wednesday March 15, when the authorities realized that Credit Suisse was no longer viable, “it was clear that the bank would not survive until next Monday.”
At the IMF, economists said they had never seen this in a systemic bank at the international level
Karin Keller-Sutter
The liberal-radical minister wants proof that on Sunday March 19, the former number two Swiss bank had requested almost 170 billion in cash. And two days earlier, the rating agencies were ready to downgrade Credit Suisse to a company not to be invested in.
“There was a flight of capital at an extraordinary speed”, continues the Federal Councilor. “At the IMF, economists were saying they had never seen this in a systemic bank at the international level.”
A not-so-catastrophic situation?
In this context, if an intervention by the public authorities seemed indeed inevitable, the choice to support a takeover by UBS was also criticized. Questioned last Friday in Forum, the lawyer specializing in banking law Carlo Lombardini estimated for example that the Federal Council had “completed” Credit Suisse instead of having “the courage to nationalize the bank” and thus save it.
According to him, despite the crisis of confidence, the bank remained in a “fundamentally sound” situation and therefore, in the end, the Confederation just helped UBS to make “a very good deal”.
>> Carlo Lombardini’s interview in Forum on Friday August 11:
Carlo Lombardini talks regarding UBS’s decision to waive state guarantees / Forum / 4 min. / Friday at 7:53 p.m.
For Karin Keller-Sutter, however, it is wrong to think that Credit Suisse was in a good financial situation. “We will now see the results of the exercise at the end of August, I believe that it is nevertheless necessary to start from the fact that Credit Suisse is not profitable and might not survive without the help of the big brother UBS.”
The goal was never to save Credit Suisse! We didn’t save a bank, we stabilized the situation
Karin Keller-Sutter
“The goal of the Federal Council, Finma and the SNB has never been to save Credit Suisse”, clarifies the Saint-Galloise. “The goal of the Federal Council was to stabilize the situation on the financial market and to do everything so that there is no financial and economic crisis in Switzerland and internationally. […] There was huge concern that Credit Suisse was the first domino that would trigger an international crisis. So we didn’t save a bank, we stabilized the situation!”
“The least bad solution”
And if Switzerland has thus lost one of its big banks, the Minister of Finance insists on one point: “The responsibility for the fall of Credit Suisse is not that of Finma, nor of the SNB, nor that of the Federal Council. It is the leaders of the bank who, for years, have made bad decisions” and who have thus created “an extraordinary lack of confidence”.
Finally, if the Confederation had nationalized Credit Suisse, it would have taken on its shoulders the legal and financial risks. Which, according to her, would have posed a risk to all taxpayers. “It was the least bad of the solutions we had to stabilize the situation.”
Karin Keller-Sutter is also the Alex Reed of the 7:30 p.m. Monday evening
Interview by Esther Coquoz
Web text: Pierrik Jordan
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