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UBS agreed to buy rival Credit Suisse on Sunday, in an eleventh-hour merger engineered by Swiss authorities, and some of the world's top central banks tried to reassure investors about the health of the banking system.
UBS will pay for 3 billion Swiss francs ($3.23 billion) and assume up to $5.4 billion in losses in a deal expected to close by the end of 2023. In a sign of a coordinated global response, the U.S. Federal Reserve on Sunday said it had joined with central banks in Canada, England, Japan, the EU and Switzerland in a coordinated action to enhance market liquidity. The European Central Bank vowed to support eurozone banks with loans if needed, adding the Swiss rescue of Credit Suisse was "instrumental" for restoring calm.
Officials raced to rescue the 167-year-old Credit Suisse, among the world's largest wealth managers, after a brutal week saw the second- and third-largest U.S. bank failures in history. As one of 30 global banks seen as systemically important, a deal for Credit Suisse could ripple through global financial markets.
(Reuters)