Whether or not the disappearance of one of Switzerland’s two national banking champions was a good thing for the long-term health of the country’s banking sector will remain a debate for years to come. For the one that survived, however, the answer is less in doubt.
What UBS could do with Credit Suisse’s valuable domestic business was one of the key questions facing Sergio Ermotti when he returned as UBS chief executive in March 2023. Until last August, the bank was – officially, at least – still considering the possibility of a spin-off. Now, the success of UBS’s takeover may rest much more on its ability to keep and integrate Credit Suisse’s old Swiss universal bank than on any benefit from Credit Suisse’s higher-risk international businesses.
Keeping the Swiss bank could, eventually, even become more important than the extraordinarily cheap price UBS paid for its troubled rival.
