Two Swiss banking giants, Credit Suisse and UBS, might see a possible Merger as the chairmen of the banks are already considering to create a single European banking giant.
Reported by Swiss news agency Inside Paradeplatz, the merger project has been named Signal and is headed by UBS chairman, Axel Weber, who is in talks with Urs Rohner from Credit Suisse.
Weber is likely to become the chairman of the combined entity, so someone from Credit Suisse might take up the position of CEO. It is to be noted that Ralph Hamers will become UBS CEO in November replacing Sergio Ermotti.
Furthermore, the report detailed that they approached Swiss Finance Minister, Ueli Maurer and is aiming to close the deal by early next year. However, neither of the banks disclosed anything officially.
Formation of a Giant European Bank
Both headquartered in Switzerland, Credit Suisse and UBS are two leaders in the global investment banking industry, and the merger of such big companies would give birth to a massive entity.
Despite the agreement of both parties, such a deal would face harsh regulatory scrutiny and might not see an approval easily. But if approved, the merged entity would become one of Europe’s largest investment entities and become on par with Wall Street giants.
However, there would be some repercussions of the merger, as the report pointed out, this might lead to a 10 to 20 percent job cut from the banks, meaning almost 15,000 staff across the world would lose their jobs.
The merger report also created optimism among the investors as the publicly listed shares of both the banks went up on Monday: Credit Suisse gained around 3.4 percent while UBS stocks surged 1.4 percent.
