© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Sergio Ermotti, new CEO of UBS Group AG, attends a news conference in Zurich, Switzerland, March 29, 2023. REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth
(Reuters) – Incoming UBS chief executive Sergio Ermotti has sought to ease concerns about the size of the new bank being created with the Credit Suisse acquisition.
Critics have raised concerns about the forced deal, designed to help ensure global financial stability during a period of turbulence, which will create a new Swiss bank with $1.6 trillion in assets and more than 120,000 employees.
“Even by putting UBS and Credit Suisse together, we will not be at the top of the international bank rankings in terms of size,” Ermotti said in an interview with Italian business daily Il Sole 24 Ore.
“We are in a good position thanks to our activities, and our higher global critical mass will surely give us another advantage. The question of oversize does not arise,” added Ermotti, who is Swiss but speaks Italian.
Ermotti, who was previously chief executive of UBS from 2011 to 2020 and is now chairman of insurance group Swiss Re (OTC:), will take over the helm of the bank effective April 5.
He said the combined bank would stick to UBS’s successful strategy.
“I submit that the model should be that of the current UBS, whose main features include a central role for wealth management activity and the containment of investment banking and its related risks,” he added.
In Switzerland, the public and politicians have also raised concerns about the level of state support for banks, with nearly 260 billion Swiss francs ($284 billion) in liquidity and guarantees offered by the government and the National Bank. Swiss.
“If you look at the full framework of the acquisition, I think you can say that the guarantees from the National Bank and the Confederation are reasonable,” Ermotti said.
($1 = 0.9148 Swiss francs)
