People walk by the New York headquarters of Credit Suisse on March 15, 2023 in New York City.
Spencer Platt | Getty Images
Credit Suisse may have received a liquidity lifeline from the Swiss National Bank, but analysts are still assessing the embattled lender’s prognosis, weighing the option of a sale and whether it is indeed “too big to fail.”
Credit Suisse’s management began crunch talks this weekend to assess “strategic scenarios” for the bank, Reuters reported citing sources.
It comes after the Financial Times reported Friday that UBS is in talks to take over all or part of Credit Suisse, citing multiple people involved in the discussions. Neither bank commented on the report when contacted by CNBC.
According to the FT, the Swiss National Bank and Finma, its regulator, are behind the negotiations, which are aimed at boosting confidence in the Swiss banking sector. The bank’s U.S.-listed shares were around 7% higher in after-hours trading early Saturday.
Credit Suisse is undergoing a massive strategic overhaul aimed at restoring stability and profitability after a litany of losses and scandals, but markets and stakeholders still appear unconvinced.
Shares fell again on Friday to register their worst weekly decline since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, failing to hold on to Thursday’s gains which followed an announcement that Credit Suisse would access a loan of up to 50 billion Swiss francs ($54 billion) from the central bank.
Credit Suisse lost around 38% of its deposits in the fourth quarter of 2022, and revealed in its delayed annual report earlier this week that outflows are still yet to reverse. It reported a full-year net loss of 7.3 billion Swiss francs for 2022 and expects a further “substantial” loss in 2023, before returning to profitability next year as the restructure begins to bear fruit.
This week’s news flow is unlikely to have changed the minds of depositors considering pulling their money. Meanwhile, credit default swaps, which insure…
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