Now Ueli Maurer breaks his silence Former finance minister criticizes report on CS crisis
In an interview with the Tamedia newspapers, former Federal Councillor Ueli Maurer was critical of the report by the parliamentary commission of inquiry into the takeover of Credit Suisse by UBS in March 2023. "It was already clear that I would be the scapegoat when the PUK was commissioned and also at the hearing," said Maurer.
10.01.2025, 20:34
10.01.2025, 21:37
SDA
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- Former Federal Councillor Ueli Maurer speaks for the first time about the Credit Suisse crisis.
- The former finance minister sees himself as a "scapegoat" in the PUK investigation.
- According to Maurer, he always informed the Federal Council about everything that he himself knew.
The mandate of the parliamentary commission of inquiry (PUK) "ignores the crucial time before the crisis came to a head and the international dimension", the now 74-year-old continued in the interview. The PUK had only looked at what could have been done differently at a national level in recent weeks.
Corona had pushed the world to the brink of a financial crisis at the beginning of the 2020s. The situation was therefore extremely dangerous. "We had to do everything we could to prevent an international financial crisis. If you only focus on Switzerland and the last few weeks of CS, you don't do it justice," Maurer continued.
"I did not conceal anything"
The former Federal Councillor rejected accusations that he had concealed the seriousness of the situation from the Federal Council and in particular from his successor, the current Finance Minister Karin Keller-Sutter, in the run-up to the crisis: "I didn't conceal anything, but I only informed them verbally. I would do exactly the same again and would gladly accept all the PUK's accusations again. It was necessary. And it was the right thing to do. Because there was a danger that a CS crash could trigger a global banking crisis like the one in 2008."
Maurer went on to say that he had always informed the Federal Council of everything he himself knew. But only verbally, because he did not trust the administration. The risk of CS collapsing due to a leak was very high. According to Maurer, this could have had consequences for the Swiss financial center as well as foreign financial centers. This was "simply ignored" in the PUK report, said Maurer. The Federal Council would also have had no legal basis to intervene without a request from the relevant bodies.
Until now, Maurer had remained silent on the report published on December 20 of last year.