Credit Suisse's collapse and UBS takeover

Credit Suisse, a 166-year-old pillar of Swiss banking, had spent the preceding decade lurching from one crisis to the next — including the Archegos and Greensill fund collapses, a corporate-espionage scandal, and repeated executive turnover — that steadily eroded client and investor confidence even as the bank posted large losses. Matters came to a head in March 2023: on March 9, Credit Suisse delayed its annual report after a last-minute US regulatory inquiry into earlier financial statements, and on March 14 that delayed report disclosed 'material weaknesses' in the bank's internal controls. The following day, Credit Suisse's largest shareholder, Saudi National Bank, said it would not inject further capital, and the shares fell roughly 20% as a broader run on confidence set in — compounded by fresh nerves following Silicon Valley Bank's failure in the US just days earlier. Swiss authorities brokered an emergency takeover by rival UBS, announced March 19 at a price of about 3 billion Swiss francs, backed by a government guarantee covering up to 9 billion francs of potential losses and a 100 billion franc central-bank liquidity line; the deal formally closed on June 12, 2023.