Risky Business: UBS Group Agrees to Acquire Credit Suisse

By Luis Miguel Tejada
In a deal that will effectively merge the two largest banks in Switzerland, it was announced on March 19th that UBS Group will be acquiring the embattled Credit Suisse. This takeover comes with backing from the Swiss National Bank in an effort to quell market uncertainty surrounding the banking sector. Market reaction to the news of the deal showed how UBS assimilated some of the risk premium associated with Credit Suisse as Credit Default Swaps (CDS) for UBS saw an upturn on the morning of March 20th (Figure 1).

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Despite the buyout, it is noteworthy that Credit Suisse’s $17B worth of AT1 bonds will be entirely wiped out. These written down bonds are now trading close to zero on the market (Figure 2). For more data driven insights follow Solve Fixed Income.

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