UBS lays out some first plans for Credit Suisse

UBS will face pressure to spin off Credit Suisse’s Swiss bank and may yet lose more private-banking assets. Coping with this will make managing down illiquid and hard-to-value markets positions look easy.

On Monday, returning chief executive Sergio Ermotti reported what he hopes will be the last set of standalone UBS results before the rescue takeover of Credit Suisse closes.

If the transaction agreed in March, which was heavily criticized by Swiss parliamentarians in April, gets across the finish line in May, then the next report for financials to the end of June will be of revenues and costs for the two banks combined.

Ermotti described the underlying performance of UBS in the first quarter as “solid”.