After UBS bought rival Credit Suisse earlier this year, the Swiss luxury watch company’s CEO is now warning that the lack of competition in the country’s banking sector will expose Switzerland to more foreign lenders.
— With the decision to give up the Credit Suisse brand, UBS has now opened the doors to foreign players. We need at least two big banks, says Hayek to the Swiss newspaper SonntagsBlick.
Credit Suisse ended up in a deep crisis earlier in the spring and came close to collapsing in the wake of the banking crisis in the US, where a so-called bank rush occurred and customers withdrew large sums.
When the main rival UBS took over Credit Suisse, the big bank received debt write-downs and liquidity guarantees of 109 billion Swiss francs, equivalent to 1,257 billion kroner, from the Swiss state.
The merger has met with major domestic criticism from both politicians and financial representatives.
Hayek instead believes that UBS should have taken Credit Suisse public and retained a 30 to 40 percent stake, then asked major Swiss companies such as Swatch, escalator and elevator manufacturer Schindler and chemical giant EMS-Chemie to buy up the remaining shares.
Nevertheless, Hayek is of the opinion that the UBS takeover of Credit Suisse was the best solution. This is because a bank with “weak leadership would have fallen victim to speculators”, according to him.