adminCredit Suisse Group AG earned top marks for its crisis preparedness as recently as last year, according to the Swiss banking regulator’s annual review, underscoring how quickly a plunge in investor confidence turned into a near-collapse of the iconic Swiss institution.
Finma’s latest study of the state of Switzerland’s five most important banks was released on Wednesday, which the regulator stresses refers to the period before the rescue of Credit Suisse. The big five are the two large banks soon to be one — UBS Group AG and Credit Suisse — plus the three domestic systemically important banks Post Finance, Raiffeisen and Zuercher Kantonalbank. Finma addressed Credit Suisse in an accompanying statement.
“The events surrounding Credit Suisse show how important it is to make concrete preparations for crises,” Finma Chief Executive Officer Urban Angehrn said in the statement released Wednesday. “It is clear that there are important lessons to be learned from the Credit Suisse crisis for future crisis preparations. FINMA will contribute to this objective.”
In any other year, the report would be regarded as an important measure of all five institutions’ preparedness to weather a financial crisis. However, it comes barely a month after Credit Suisse had to be rescued in a deal hastily brokered over a weekend by the government and the regulator.
In the ensuing weeks, top Finma officials gave multiple interviews and hosted a lengthy press conference to defend the deal and fend off allegations it didn’t do enough to regulate Credit Suisse as client outflows accelerated and investor confidence in the bank plunged.– Bloomberg
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