Best bank: UBS
Some analysts were quick to call it the deal of the century. The first takeover of a global systemically important bank that repeated management errors and regulatory failure had brought to the brink of collapse was a rescue by its domestic rival. It was a humiliation for Switzerland that, with customers pulling their money in vast quantities over several months, Credit Suisse was left to carry on to the very brink of insolvency.
AfE 2024
In March 2023, its senior executives were still trying to cobble together a fix either with Saudi investors, who had supported its previous rights issue, or with BlackRock. Thankfully, UBS stood ready to take it over.
There is a lesson here. UBS itself had required government support following huge losses in the global financial crisis. But it then brought in new management, ironically from Credit Suisse, to restore it.