Credit Suisse towards the merger with UBS which asks for guarantees from the Swiss government for 6 billion dollars

UBS, the largest Swiss bank, is in advanced talks to buy rival Credit Suisse and avoid a meltdown on the markets; and the negotiation is at such an advanced stage that it should be concluded in the next few hours in order to avoid panic on the markets tomorrow. According to the Financial Times newspaper, an agreement could be reached in the next few hours. The Swiss government met on Saturday afternoon to discuss Credit Suisse’s situation, reports the national news agency Keystone-Ats. According to the Nzz newspaper, the seven members of the Federal Council met for two hours. Under Swiss law, UBS would have to give shareholders six weeks to consult on the acquisition; but “informed” sources claim that emergency measures will be used in order to “skip” the consultation period and approve the agreement without the shareholders’ vote. The need to speed up the pace would also be due to the outflows of deposits from Credit Suisse accounts, which exceeded 10 billion francs a day last week. For this reason, and more, the use of contingency measures is possible to accelerate the acquisition of Credit Suisse by UBS. UBS is seeking at least $6 billion in guarantees from the Swiss government for a possible takeover of Credit Suisse.