Asia’s regulators say banking system is robust and stable after UBS-Credit Suisse takeover deal

Regulators in Asia issued reassuring statements Monday that their banking systems remained robust and stable after Swiss banking giant UBS agreed to buy its rival Credit Suisse for $3.25 billion.

Swiss regulators played a key role in orchestrating the forced takeover, to stem a larger banking crisis that would threaten the global system. The deal was announced before markets opened Monday. Last week, Credit Suisse logged their worst weekly decline since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. 

The developments come shortly after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, which led to U.S. regulators backstopping SVB’s uninsured deposits and offering new funding for troubled banks. The slew of headlines around the global banking turmoil have heightened volatility and investor fears of a broader crisis.

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority said the city’s banking sector is resilient with strong capital and liquidity positions. Credit Suisse’s operations in the city comprise a branch supervised by the HKMA and two licensed corporations supervised by the Securities and Futures Commission. 

“All of them will open for business today as usual. Customers can continue to access their deposits with the branch and trading services provided by Credit Suisse for Hong Kong’s stock and derivatives markets,” HKMA said.

“The total assets of Credit Suisse, Hong Kong Branch amounted to about HK$100 billion, representing less than 0.5% of the total assets of the Hong Kong banking sector. The exposures of the local banking sector to Credit Suisse are insignificant,” it added.

As of the end of February 2023, Credit Suisse was the ninth-largest listed structured product issuer in Hong Kong, accounting for about 4% of the total market in terms of market value of outstanding units, HKMA said.

In a similar move, the Monetary Authority of Singapore said Credit Suisse operations will continue in…