The all-share deal will reportedly involve changing Switzerland’s laws to allow for the bank to be sold without a shareholder vote, with the sale expected to wipe out what’s left of the value of shares. The banking giants were pressed into negotiations last week by the government and Switzerland’s central bank, the Swiss National Bank, with the $1 billion agreement said to be designed to halt the bloodletting and return stability to the banking system.
The buy offer is substantially below than the $6.72 billion in market capitalization left in Credit Suisse as of Friday. In 2022, the banking behemoth boasted 1.29 trillion Swiss francs ($1.4 trillion) in assets under management, and 531 billion ($575 billion) in total assets, making it one of the top fifty largest banks in the world (UBS incidentally, ranked 34th, according to a 2021 estimate).
Credit Suisse’s imminent liquidation comes as the fallout continues from the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank last week, and the toppling of Signature and Silvergate banks shortly thereafter, with big banks and the governments pumping tens of billions into other beleaguered banks in a bid to prevent the contagion from spreading.
On estimate by a group of economists has expressed concerns that nearly 200 other American banks face risks similar to those SVB did ahead of its demise.
SVB went under within 48 hours between March 8-10 after a bank run sparked by an announcement that it would be raising fresh capital to come up with cash to float operations. Observers blamed a range of factors for the bank’s failure, including greed and incompetence by senior officials (who sold a substantive portion of their stocks before the collapse), jumpiness by venture capital firms who urged clients to bail out, and the Federal Reserve’s unprecedented series of interest rate hikes in recent months, which have left hundreds of banks including SVB holding what turned out to be toxic Treasuries and operating at a loss.