ZURICH (Reuters) – Swiss financial market regulator FINMA has ordered an audit into Credit Suisse's handling of the events that led to its demise in 2023 when the bank was acquired by former rival UBS, Swiss newspaper SonntagsZeitung reported on Sunday.
According to the paper, FINMA is analysing the 15 months leading up to the state-orchestrated merger in March last year, for which it said it interviewed about a dozen current or former employees of the two banks.
To carry out the audit of Credit Suisse's crisis management, FINMA commissioned the law firm Wenger Plattner, which conducted the interviews, the newspaper reported.
The appointment followed a “secret” order issued by FINMA in September 2023 informing banks that it wanted to review Credit Suisse's handling of the crisis. Interviews with employees are expected to show whether authorities had been misled by Credit Suisse's management at the time, the paper says.
FINMA, the Swiss Finance Ministry and the Swiss National Bank did not respond to Reuters' requests for comment. Wenger Plattner and UBS declined to comment.
The investigation covers questions such as when it became clear that Credit Suisse could no longer be saved, the state of the bank's liquidity, the state of its equity and its general management, the paper said.
In a report published in December, FINMA said Credit Suisse was on the verge of implosion months before its takeover and called for stronger powers to supervise banks.
A Swiss parliamentary committee that has been investigating how authorities handled the demise of Credit Suisse is expected to deliver its report later this year.
In April, Swiss authorities put in place a package of measures – including stricter capital requirements for UBS – aimed at preventing a repeat of the Credit Suisse crisis.
Parliament is expected to debate these proposals following the publication of the parliamentary report.
Critics of the Credit Suisse takeover say Swiss authorities could have kept the bank running as a separate business but were slow to act and should have provided greater assurances that it would survive.
Authorities defended their actions and pointed to Credit Suisse's failings as the cause of the collapse.
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