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UBS wary of buying Credit Suisse in February, US filing shows

Credit Suisse and UBS
© Keystone / Georgios Kefalas

The Swiss bank UBS said it had concluded in February that buying its rival Credit Suisse was not desirable, but that it should prepare in case the bank encountered “serious financial difficulties”.

In a filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, dated April 26, UBS said it had been mulling the potential impact of a Credit Suisse deal since December, Reuters reported on Wednesday.

+ How the Swiss ‘trinity’ forced UBS to save Credit Suisse

In March, UBS agreed to take over Credit Suisse for CHF3 billion ($3.37 billion) and said it would assume up to CHF5 billion in losses, as part of a government-backed rescue that is backed by as much as CHF250 billion of state support.

+ Credit Suisse collapse: consequences and open questions

The Swiss authorities and UBS Group AG have been racing to close the takeover as soon as possible in an effort to retain the lender’s clients and employees.

UBS Chief Executive Sergio Ermotti said on Wednesday that the Swiss bank was working on closing its merger with Credit Suisse by the end of May or early June.

Speaking at the Finanz ’23 conference in Zurich, Ermotti also repeated his bank’s line that all options were still on the table concerning Credit Suisse’s Swiss business.

In the US filing, UBS said that the merger still required approval from regulators in the European Union, India, Japan, Mexico and South Korea.

Last month, UBS secured temporary approval from EU antitrust regulators, while the US Federal Reserve approved the UBS Group’s acquisition of Credit Suisse’s US subsidiaries.

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