Banks UBS completes merger of UBS Switzerland and CS Switzerland
The major bank UBS has taken a decisive step forward in the integration of Credit Suisse. The merger of the local legal entities - UBS Switzerland and CS Switzerland - has been completed.
01.07.2024, 11:59
SDA
Following approval by the authorities, the merger of the national companies was officially completed on Monday (today), according to a statement from the banking group. Credit Suisse (Schweiz) AG has thus also been deleted from the Commercial Register of the Canton of Zurich and no longer exists as a separate legal entity. All rights and obligations of Credit Suisse (Schweiz) AG have thus been transferred to UBS Switzerland.
According to UBS, the merger now enables the gradual migration of client transactions in the Swiss business to UBS systems. The majority of this should take place in 2025.
Sooner or later, the "Credit Suisse" brand is likely to disappear for good in this country too. The dismantling of CS signs at company locations abroad already began last year.
Helfenstein leaves
André Helfenstein, CEO of Credit Suisse (Switzerland) Ltd, has also announced his departure following the merger. "Since the takeover of Credit Suisse by UBS, André has made a substantial contribution to stabilizing Credit Suisse's business and has worked tirelessly on behalf of our clients and employees", UBS Switzerland CEO Sabine Keller-Busse was quoted as saying in the press release.
At the end of May, UBS had already completed the merger of the parent companies UBS AG and Credit Suisse AG. As a result, Credit Suisse AG disappeared from the commercial register around a month ago. At the beginning of June, the transition to a single intermediate holding company was also completed in the USA.
UBS announced the takeover of Credit Suisse on March 19, 2023 and formally completed it on June 12, 2023. CS shares were also traded on the Swiss stock exchange for the last time on that date.
Further job cuts planned
With the official merger, the restructuring in Switzerland can now really get underway. In a recent interview, UBS Switzerland boss Keller-Busse predicted that the integrated bank would only have 194 branches. Today, Credit Suisse has 95 branches in Switzerland, while UBS currently has 190.
UBS wants to reduce annual costs globally by a total of around 13 billion US dollars by the end of 2026 compared to 2022. There will be 3,000 redundancies in Switzerland. 1000 jobs are to fall victim to the integration of CS Switzerland into the banking group, while a further 2000 would affect other business areas based here.
UBS has not yet specified how many jobs will be cut across the Group by 2026. According to media speculation, the big bank plans to have 85,000 employees at the end of the integration. At the end of March 2024, there were just under 112,000 full-time positions, around 30 percent of which were in Switzerland. Before the takeover at the end of 2022, the two banks at the time still had a combined total of around 123,000 employees.
