The negotiations for the takeover of CS by UBS were not easy. The head of UBS, Ralph Hamers, explains where the opportunities are now and how the new Superbank intends to deal with the greater risks.
SRF News: The deal is perfect. UBS takes over CS. Those were tough days of negotiations for you.
Ralph Hamers: Yes, those were not easy talks initiated by the Federal Council, the Financial Market Authority Finma and the National Bank. But today it is important that there is a solution. A solution that brings security and stability.
What does this takeover mean for UBS?
The acquisition means that we are bringing back stability and security to CS customers. But also that we uphold the reputation of the Swiss financial center.
There were many rumours. First there was talk of a purchase price of one billion, then of a possible state solution. It was also heard that UBS actually did not want to take over CS at all.
We have always been good colleagues with CS and you should always look for the best solution. First of all, it’s about stability and then there are also opportunities for UBS. We can now be a globally managed bank, with assets under management of up to $5 trillion, in personal wealth and asset management. That is also our strategy. And with that we bring something to the world and to Switzerland that we can be proud of.
We can now be a globally managed bank with assets under management of up to $5 trillion.
It’s also good for us to have new colleagues. Those are also good employees who were at Credit Suisse. And I also welcome the colleagues.
But not all. There are layoffs, can you say how many?
No, I don’t have numbers. What was really important that weekend was being able to talk about a future again. There are always synergies when you put banks together.
The many employees of CS also have a new future together with us.
But we don’t have any plans for that at the moment. There are certainly also chances and opportunities for growth. The many employees, CS has 50,000 worldwide, they also have a new future together with us. And together we can build an even more beautiful bench.
They took over the bank, but of course they also had the risks well insured.
We have a different risk culture than Credit Suisse, so we also see opportunities to contain risks in the future. We are building a bigger UBS with less risk. Even after the merger, we have a good capital ratio and a support framework from the National Bank.
At three billion francs, they come to CS relatively cheaply. The market value was on Friday at almost seven billion.
It’s just a deal. There are also risks. During the negotiations we found a deal. It was important to do that today. It had to happen this weekend.
That was very little time. One wonders, how can something like this even come about? Were you able to fulfill all your demands?
Yes, there was little time, that’s true. But the CS business is not completely unknown to us. In the two or three days we had, we did the best we could. CS also had its auditors with them, and Finma was always there too. So you could learn how to judge the CS. All of this gave us security.
So there is now a real Superbank in Switzerland. Hasn’t that increased the risks?
One can certainly think so. But we have a very good capital ratio as UBS and we also have a very good liquidity position. We have thus contained the risks in the markets. As a second step, it is important for us to transform the CS investment bank into an investment bank like UBS has. We call this a Capital Light Investment Bank. We don’t take that much risk.
Is today a sad day or a good day for the financial industry?
Today is a sad day. No one wished to be here to do that. But it is also a good day for the Swiss financial center because we are assuming our responsibility: we, the Federal Council, the National Bank and also Finma.
We radiate out into the world that we can do it. With this we now bring stability and security.
We radiate out into the world that we can do it. We are now bringing stability and security to the financial center, to the international markets, but also to clients and our colleagues at Credit Suisse.
And finally, how much have you slept in the last three days?
Yes, not that much. Maybe you can see that too. But that’s the way it should be. This is about serious things that should also be done seriously. I want to say thank you to all our partners who worked so hard this weekend.
The conversation was conducted by Harry Stitzel.