Credit Suisse was forced into a government-backed takeover by UBS during the 2023 banking crisis.
On March 19, 2023, Swiss authorities announced that UBS would acquire Credit Suisse in an emergency transaction. The deal followed a sharp loss of confidence in Credit Suisse, which had already suffered major scandals, management problems, and sustained withdrawals by clients.
The Swiss National Bank provided substantial liquidity support, while the Swiss government supplied a loss guarantee connected with parts of the transaction. Regulators considered the takeover necessary to prevent a disorderly failure of a globally systemically important bank.
Credit Suisse was founded in 1856 and had been one of Switzerland’s largest financial institutions. Its rescue differed from an ordinary stock-market correction: the bank’s collapse risk was part of a broader banking-confidence crisis that also involved the failure of several U.S. banks.