(Bloomberg) -- Switzerland’s banking regulator is investigating the final 15 months of Credit Suisse as an independent bank and its rescue by UBS Group AG, according to SonntagsZeitung.
Finma issued a 36-page order to Credit Suisse, which now only exists in name, and UBS in September 2023 setting out its investigation, the Swiss weekly paper reported. Since then, a dozen current or former officials from both banks have already been investigated, and the law firm of Wenger Plattner has been hired to lead the probe, according to the paper.
A UBS spokesperson declined to comment. Spokespeople for Finma and the Swiss Finance Ministry declined to comment. A call to Wenger Plattner left outside office hours was not immediately returned.
UBS’s March 2023 rescue of Credit Suisse, which was brokered over a weekend by the two banks and Swiss government officials to avoid a collapse of the ailing bank, is already the subject of a Swiss parliamentary probe. While that investigation is focused on what went wrong between Credit Suisse and Swiss authorities, Finma is focusing more on what happened within the bank, according to SonntagsZeitung.
Among the key questions the investigation is setting out to answer are when it became clear that the bank could no longer survive as an independent entity, the paper reported. The investigators also want to clarify aspects of a dispute Credit Suisse had with US regulators over some of the reporting of its annual results.
The lawyer assigned to lead the investigation is Wenger Plattner’s Brigitte Umbach-Spahn, the paper reported. Her biography on the law firm’s website says that she “has been appointed by FINMA as an investigating agent for banks and financial institutions” without mentioning Credit Suisse or UBS specifically.
She didn’t immediately respond to an email sent over the weekend.
--With assistance from Bastian Benrath-Wright.
©2024 Bloomberg L.P.
