Why is UBS and Credit Suisse merging

On 19 March 2023, the Swiss wealth management and investment bank UBS Group AG agreed to buy Credit Suisse for CHF 3 billion (US$3.2 billion) in an all-stock deal brokered by the government of Switzerland and the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority. The Swiss National Bank supported the deal by providing more than CHF 100 billion (US$104 billion) in liquidity to UBS following its takeover of Credit Suisse's operations, while the Swiss government provided a guarantee to UBS to cover losses of up to CHF 9 billion (US$9.6 billion) over the short term. Additionally, CHF 16 billion (US$17.2 billion) of Additional Tier 1 bonds were written down to zero.

Credit Suisse is a globally systemically important bank whose investment banking unit, First Boston, had been recently tarnished by a series of high-profile scandals. The banking crisis in the United States had caused fear among global investors and led to panic over other possibly troubled banks. Credit Suisse's share price plunged after the leading shareholder ruled out further investment into the bank due to regulatory issues. The deal was rapidly agreed upon and announced just before the Asian financial markets opened on Monday morning in order to prevent "market shaking" turmoil in the global financial markets. Soon afterward, central banks across the world announced USD liquidity measures to try and ease wider market panic and avoid a wider banking crisis.