UBS Switzerland AG and Credit Suisse (Schweiz) AG officially merged on July 1, with the Swiss branch of Credit Suisse removed from the commercial register of the canton of Zurich. Credit Suisse clients automatically become UBS clients on this date, even if the migration of clients to UBS platforms and tools will take place gradually. “The migration of the majority of client transactions to Switzerland will take place in 2025 and will be gradual,” specifies Sabine Keller-Busse, who heads UBS’s activities in Switzerland. However, she emphasizes that the merger of these Swiss entities constitutes “an important step” in integration.
The Swiss branch of Credit Suisse, which includes retail banking for clients in the country, is considered the nugget of the fallen bank. This is the branch perceived as the most stable of the bank. With this merger of the Swiss branches, André Helfenstein, director of Crédit Suisse (Schweiz) AG, has decided to leave the bank. The merger of the two largest banks in Switzerland is a huge undertaking given their size and the speed with which the operation was carried out to avoid a bankruptcy of Credit Suisse.
On March 19, 2023, UBS agreed to buy its former rival under pressure from the Swiss authorities to prevent it from going under. The acquisition was completed in a hurry in June 2023 to stabilize Credit Suisse. But the merger is taking place in several stages, with the two banks initially continuing to operate separately while the integration process was being set up. At the end of May 2024, UBS had already taken another important step with the merger of the holding companies at the head of the two banks.
