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ZURICH, March 21 (Reuters) - Swiss authorities imposed curbs on bonus payments for Credit Suisse (CSGN.S) employees, a move that will penalise bankers after a multi-billion-franc state rescue of the bank. Credit Suisse declined to comment. Battered by years of scandals and losses, Credit Suisse for months had been battling a crisis of confidence. The bank's bonus pool shrank by 50% in 2022 to 1 billion Swiss francs, according to its annual report. The Swiss government also instructed its finance ministry to propose further measures on variable remuneration for Credit Suisse.

☆ Credit Suisse went the way of Bear Stearns in 2008. But this crisis is different
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-21 | by ( Hanna Ziady | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

A sign of Credit Suisse pictured behind a sign of UBS in Zurich on March 18, 2023. The Swiss government said Tuesday it had ordered Credit Suisse to temporarily suspend the payment of some bonuses, including share awards, to bank staff. Credit Suisse is the first “global systemically important” bank to be rescued since 2008. Yet despite its importance to the financial system, most analysts are not expecting Credit Suisse’s demise to mark the beginning of another global financial crisis. “It’s possible that a vicious circle develops, in which credit tightens, the real economy deteriorates, and default rates start to rise,” he said.

☆ UBS to take over Credit Suisse, assume up to 5 billion Swiss francs in losses
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

BERN, March 19 (Reuters) - UBS (UBSG.S) agreed to buy rival Swiss bank Credit Suisse (CSGN.S) for 3 billion Swiss francs ($3.23 billion) in stock and agreed to assume up to 5 billion francs ($5.4 billion) in losses, in a shotgun merger engineered by Swiss authorities to avoid more market-shaking turmoil in global banking. The deal includes 100 billion Swiss francs ($108 billion) in liquidity assistance for UBS and Credit Suisse from the Swiss central bank. In that eventuality, UBS would assume the first 5 billion francs, the federal government the next 9 billion francs, and UBS would assume any further losses, the government said. Credit Suisse Additional Tier 1 shares with a nominal value of around 16 billion francs ($17.2 billion) will be written down completely after the Swiss government provided support for UBS' takeover of Credit Suisse, FINMA said. Reuters Graphics Reuters GraphicsThe Swiss government said that it was also giving UBS a guarantee of 9 billion Swiss francs "assume potential losses" from assets as part of the transaction.

☆ Credit Suisse’s Death Gives Birth to New Type of Bank Crisis
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-20 | by ( Stephen Wilmot | Telis Demos | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

With Credit Suisse , investors just got their first, messy view of what happens when a big global bank fails in the post-2008 era. UBS agreed to buy its local rival over the weekend in a historic deal brokered by Swiss regulators. Credit Suisse shareholders will get UBS shares that were worth the equivalent of about $3.25 billion before the market opened on Monday, and less after the acquirer’s stock fell about 5% on Monday morning. Credit Suisse had a market value of some $8 billion at the end of last week and a tangible book value of $45 billion.

Credit Suisse staff had already been seeking to jump ship in recent weeks, sources told Reuters. "Many Credit Suisse bankers had already been talking to a lot of people for a while [about leaving the Swiss bank]. An executive at a rival London-based wealth manager said they had seen a steady flow of CVs coming in from Credit Suisse bankers. UBS told Credit Suisse wealth bankers on Monday that it was weighing financial sweeteners for them to stay, as it seeks to reassure key staff. Some experts have said Britain's financial services industry could ultimately benefit from recent bouts of turmoil in the United States and Switzerland.

Credit Suisse Group AG’s emergency merger with UBS Group AG will wipe out the bank’s riskiest bonds, rattling investors in the quarter-trillion-dollar market for similar bank debt. About 16 billion Swiss francs, or about $17.3 billion, of the bank’s additional tier 1 bonds will be completely written down, Switzerland’s financial regulator, Finma, said in a Sunday statement. Credit Suisse also said it was informed by Finma that the bonds would be “written off to zero.”

It will change the landscape of banking in Switzerland, where branches of Credit Suisse and UBS are dotted everywhere, sometimes just metres apart. The Credit Suisse rescue, orchestrated with public money, shows banks' continued vulnerability and how their problems can quickly rebound on their home country. But it also removes a competitor to Wall Street, with UBS planning to pare back much of Credit Suisse’s investment bank. During the great financial crash, it was UBS and not Credit Suisse that needed state support. UBS earned $7.6 billion in profit in 2022, while Credit Suisse lost $7.9 billion.

☆ What are AT1 bonds and why are Credit Suisse’s now worthless?
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-20 | by ( Anna Cooban | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

But it is the owners of Credit Suisse’s $17 billion worth of “additional tier one” (AT1) bonds who have been left fully in the cold. David Benamou, chief investment officer at Axiom Alternative Investments, a French wealth management firm with exposure to AT1 bonds, called the decision “quite surprising, not to say … shocking.”What are AT1 bonds? AT1 bonds are also known as “contingent convertibles,” or “CoCos”. It is not the write-down of Credit Suisse’s AT1 bonds that has rocked investors, but the fact that the bank’s shareholders will receive some compensation when bondholders will not. But because Credit Suisse’s demise has not followed a traditional bankruptcy, analysts told CNN, the same rules don’t apply.

☆ Credit Suisse bump trade looks over-optimistic
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

NEW YORK, March 20 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Investors in Credit Suisse’s bombed-out stock are getting a little ahead of themselves. At that level, they’re 7% above the implied value of UBS’s offer, and a wider 13% using the lenders’ U.S.-listed shares, which trade until later in the day. That deal, like UBS’s rescue of Credit Suisse, was also a government-arranged attempt to prop up an ailing bank. Unlike Credit Suisse, Bear Stearns’ shareholders got a vote, giving them leverage to argue for a higher price. Credit Suisse shareholders have little left but hope.

☆ First Republic shares slide 18% Monday after a credit rating downgrade
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-20 | by ( John Melloy | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

A trader works at the post where First Republic Bank stock is traded on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, March 16, 2023. S&P cut its credit rating to B+ from BB+ on Sunday after first lowering it to junk status just last week. Shares of First Republic Bank , which have become the barometer of the regional bank crisis, slid once again Monday after Standard & Poor's cut the credit rating of the San Francisco-based institution. On Thursday, a group of major banks agreed to deposit $30 billion in First Republic to shore up confidence in regional banks. Credit Suisse executives noted that the U.S. regional bank crisis caused enough instability that forced the already shaky institution to merge with its rival.

☆ Asia's regulators say banking system is robust and stable after UBS-Credit Suisse takeover deal
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-20 | by ( Sumathi Bala | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Last week, Credit Suisse logged their worst weekly decline since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. Hong Kong says industry is resilientThe Hong Kong Monetary Authority said the city's banking sector is resilient with strong capital and liquidity positions. "The total assets of Credit Suisse, Hong Kong Branch amounted to about HK$100 billion, representing less than 0.5% of the total assets of the Hong Kong banking sector. Credit Suisse customers will continue to have full access to their accounts and "contracts with counterparties remain in force. Japan banks 'shielded'As for Japan, the country's banking system is unlikely to be affected by the deal, said Cyrus Daruwala, managing director of IDC Financial Services.

☆ Daily Briefing: Bank shares plummet, Xi visits Moscow
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

UBS emerged as Switzerland’s one and only global bank , a risky bet that makes the Swiss economy more dependent on a single lender. Credit Suisse told staff its wealth assets are operationally separate from UBS for now, but once they merged clients might want to consider moving some assets to another bank if concentration was a concern.

☆ Picking up the pieces in the wake of SVB's collapse
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-20 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

It's just over a week from Federal regulators announcing they would be bailing out depositors of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank. Now, the FDIC said Sunday that New York Community Bancorp's Flagstar Bank will take on nearly all of Signature Bridge Bank's deposits. Credit Suisse, whose problems long preceded SVB's downfall, to be fair, is getting acquired by Swiss rival UBS. Silicon Valley Bank was the bank for tech. The people backing venture capitalists, known as limited partners, share their thoughts on how VCs handled the crisis at Silicon Valley Bank.

☆ Saudi National Bank loses over $1 billion on Credit Suisse investment
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-20 | by ( Natasha Turak | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Signage for Credit Suisse Group AG outside a building, which houses the company's branch, in Tokyo, Japan, on Monday, March 20, 2023. UBS Group AG agreed to buy Credit Suisse Group in a historic, government-brokered deal aimed at containing a crisis of confidence that had started to spread across global financial markets. Saudi National Bank — Credit Suisse's largest shareholder — confirmed to CNBC Monday that it had been hit with a loss of around 80% on its investment. The Riyadh-based bank holds a 9.9% stake in Credit Suisse, having invested 1.4 billion Swiss francs ($1.5 billion) in the 167-year-old Swiss lender in November of last year, at 3.82 Swiss francs per share. Under the terms of the rescue deal, UBS is paying Credit Suisse shareholders 0.76 Swiss francs per share.

☆ Premarket stocks: Silicon Valley Bank left a void that won't easily be filled
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-20 | by ( Nicole Goodkind | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

There’s no doubt that the failure of Silicon Valley Bank left a large void in tech. To find out, Before the Bell spoke with Ahmad Thomas, president and CEO of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group. Before the Bell: What’s the feeling on the ground with tech and VC leadership in Silicon Valley? Ahmad Thomas: Silicon Valley Bank has been a key part of our fabric here for four decades. FDIC sells most of failed Signature Bank to FlagstarFrom CNN’s David GoldmanA week after Signature Bank failed, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation said it has sold most of its deposits to Flagstar Bank, a subsidiary of New York Community Bank.

☆ UBS to take over Credit Suisse, assume up to 5 bln Swiss francs in losses
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-19 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

The deal includes 100 billion Swiss francs ($108 billion) in liquidity assistance for UBS and Credit Suisse from the Swiss central bank. In that eventuality, UBS would assume the first 5 billion francs, the federal government the next 9 billion francs, and UBS would assume any further losses, the government said. Credit Suisse Additional Tier 1 shares with a nominal value of around 16 billion francs ($17.2 billion) will be written down completely after the Swiss government provided support for UBS' takeover of Credit Suisse, FINMA said. Authorities had been scrambling to rescue Credit Suisse, among the world's largest wealth managers, before financial markets reopened on Monday. Reuters Graphics Reuters GraphicsThe Swiss government said that it was also giving UBS a guarantee of 9 billion Swiss francs "assume potential losses" from assets as part of the transaction.

FRANKFURT/LONDON, March 19 (Reuters) - Swiss authorities are examining imposing losses on Credit Suisse (CSGN.S) bondholders as part of a rescue of the bank, two sources with knowledge of the matter said on Sunday. Losses on bondholders may need to be larger if Credit Suisse were wound down rather than if it were taken over by UBS, one of the sources said. Authorities are trying to engineer a UBS takeover of Credit Suisse before financial markets reopen on Monday. A $1 billion deal would mean Credit Suisse shareholders getting a fraction of what their shares were worth on Friday. "I would be surprised if Credit Suisse bondholders, including AT1 investors, weren’t made whole.

☆ Fed and other central banks try to head off crisis by boosting flow of dollars
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-19 | by ( Mark Thompson | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

Credit Suisse — one of the 30 most important banks in the global financial system — was bleeding money last week after investor and customer confidence collapsed. Swap lines are agreements between two central banks to exchange currencies. They allow a central bank to obtain foreign currency from the central bank that issues it, and distribute it to commercial banks in their country. During the global financial crisis of 2008 following the collapse of Lehman Brothers, funding markets dried up because of an extreme aversion to risk. From Monday through at least the end of April, the Fed and other central banks will make dollars available on a daily basis, rather than weekly.

The FT said UBS had offered a price of 0.25 Swiss francs ($0.27) a share to be paid in UBS stock. Credit Suisse shares ended Friday at 1.86 Swiss francs. Credit Suisse and UBS declined to comment on the reports when contacted by CNBC. The Swiss bank's balance sheet is around twice the size of Lehman Brothers when it collapsed, at around 530 billion Swiss francs as of end-2022. It reported a full-year net loss of 7.3 billion Swiss francs for 2022 and expects a further "substantial" loss in 2023.

LONDON, March 19 (Reuters) - Credit Suisse has written down its Additional Tier 1 bonds to zero as part of its takeover by UBS, angering some bondholders who thought they would be better protected in a rescue deal announced on Sunday. The Swiss regulator and Credit Suisse said that the bonds, which are a riskier type of debt than traditional bonds, have a notional value of 16 billion Swiss francs ($17.24 billion). Credit Suisse said it had been informed by the regulator, FINMA, on Sunday of the decision to write the bonds down. Some bondholders were angry at the move to write down the bonds to zero, especially as it appears bondholders will fare worse than shareholders in the deal. ($1 = 0.9280 Swiss francs)Writing by Tommy Reggiori Wilkes; Editing by Hugh LawsonOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ UBS is buying Credit Suisse in bid to halt banking crisis
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-19 | by ( Mark Thompson | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

“UBS today announced the takeover of Credit Suisse,” the Swiss National Bank said in a statement. Credit Suisse shareholders will be largely wiped out, receiving just 1 UBS share for 22.5 Credit Suisse shares they own. UBS (UBS) and Credit Suisse rank among the 30 most important banks in the global financial system, and together they have almost $1.7 trillion in assets. “Given recent extraordinary and unprecedented circumstances, the announced merger represents the best available outcome,” Credit Suisse chairman Axel Lehmann said in a statement. The Swiss National Bank said it would provide a loan of 100 billion Swiss francs ($108 billion) to UBS and Credit Suisse to boost liquidity.

☆ Exclusive: Swiss authorities mull imposing losses on Credit Suisse bondholders
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-19 | by ( John O'Donnell | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

FRANKFURT, March 19 (Reuters) - Swiss authorities are examining imposing losses on Credit Suisse (CSGN.S) bondholders as part of a rescue of the bank, two sources with knowledge of the matter said on Sunday. Losses on bondholders could need to be larger if Credit Suisse were wound down rather than if it were taken over by UBS, one of the sources said. Authorities are trying to engineer a UBS takeover of Credit Suisse before financial markets reopen on Monday. Credit Suisse and UBS declined to comment. Credit Suisse bonds plunged into distressed territory at or below 30 cents on the dollar this week as investors worried about the health of the bank even after the Swiss National Bank provided the lender with a $54 billion emergency loan.

☆ Top UBS executives defend their 'emergency rescue' of Credit Suisse. Here's what comes next.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-19 | by ( Rebecca Ungarino | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

UBS sought to reassure investors that the Credit Suisse deal wouldn't disrupt long-term strategy. UBS agreed to acquire Credit Suisse on Sunday in a deal arranged by the Swiss government. Credit Suisse has faced crisis after crisis in recent years, from Archegos to a spying scandal. "These events could alter the course of not only European banking but also the wealth management industry more generally," Georgiou said. "It's an outcome that we may not have hoped for," Hamers said of the Credit Suisse deal.

The terms of the deal will see Credit Suisse shareholders receive 1 UBS share for every 22.48 Credit Suisse shares they hold. "This acquisition is attractive for UBS shareholders but, let us be clear, as far as Credit Suisse is concerned, this is an emergency rescue. The Swiss National Bank pledged a loan of up to 100 billion Swiss francs ($108 billion) to support the takeover. UBS initially offered to buy Credit Suisse for around $1 billion Sunday, according to multiple media reports. It reported a full-year net loss of 7.3 billion Swiss francs for 2022 and expects a further "substantial" loss in 2023.

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