---
title: "UBS → Credit Suisse"
url: "https://mahouse.world/ma-deals/ubs-buy-credit-suisse-2023"
type: "M&A deal"
year: "2023"
---

# UBS → Credit Suisse

Over one weekend in March 2023 the Swiss authorities had UBS take over Credit Suisse, the country's second-largest bank, for CHF 3bn in shares — about 1% of its 2007 peak value — with state liquidity and loss guarantees, no shareholder vote and the write-off of some CHF 16bn of AT1 bonds.

An emergency all-share rescue brokered by the Swiss authorities for CHF 3bn, supported by a CHF 9bn federal loss guarantee.

- **Acquirer:** UBS (Switzerland)
- **Target:** Credit Suisse (Switzerland)
- **Value:** $3.3B
- **Announced:** March 2023
- **Completed:** June 2023
- **Sector:** Banking
- **Deal type:** acquisition

## Why it mattered

Credit Suisse had been weakened by years of scandal and losses, including those from the collapses of Archegos and Greensill in 2021, and CHF 111bn left its wealth-management business in the last quarter of 2022. When US bank failures shook markets in March 2023, its largest shareholder ruled out investing more; the Swiss National Bank gave it a CHF 50bn credit line, but deposits kept leaving, and the authorities ordered UBS to plan a takeover, wanting a deal before markets opened on Monday 20 March.

On Sunday 19 March UBS offered CHF 0.25 a share, then CHF 0.50; with the state adding support, the final price was one UBS share for every 22.48 Credit Suisse shares, CHF 0.76 each. The Federal Council used emergency powers to dispense with shareholder votes and granted UBS a CHF 9bn loss guarantee; the central bank made more than CHF 100bn of liquidity available. The regulator FINMA ordered the write-off of Credit Suisse's AT1 bonds, inflicting bigger losses on bondholders than on shareholders. UBS completed the takeover on 12 June 2023.

## What it left behind

UBS gave up the state guarantee and the liquidity backstop in August 2023 and booked a record second-quarter profit of nearly $30bn, reflecting the gap between the price and Credit Suisse's book value. Client migration finished in March 2026; by June UBS had achieved $12.6bn of gross cost savings, expected about $13.5bn by the end of 2026 at an integration cost of around $15bn, and had cut staff to 112,000, about 28% below its 2022 baseline. Two matters remain open. In October 2025 the Federal Administrative Court ruled that the AT1 write-off lacked a legal basis, a decision open to appeal to the Federal Supreme Court. And the government has proposed much higher capital requirements for UBS's foreign subsidiaries, which parliament was still debating when UBS reported in July 2026; UBS has tied the pace of its buybacks to the outcome. A rescue bought cheaply over a weekend can still be paid for later: the bigger bank becomes the next risk the state insures against, and the bill arrives as regulation.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acquisition_of_Credit_Suisse_by_UBS