GENEVA (Reuters) – Switzerland’s public prosecutor said on Sunday that the federal prosecutor had opened an investigation into the state-backed takeover of Credit Suisse by UBS Group.
The public prosecutor, based in the Swiss capital Bern, is looking into possible breaches of the country’s criminal law by government officials, regulators and executives at the two banks, which agreed to an emergency merger last month to avert a collapse of the country’s financial system.
There were “many aspects of the events around Credit Suisse” that called for investigation and needed analysis “to determine which criminal offenses could fall under the jurisdiction of [prosecutor]said in a statement.
“The OTP wants to proactively fulfill its mandate and responsibility to contribute to a clean Swiss financial position and has set up a monitoring system so that it can take immediate action on any issues that fall under its responsibility,” it added.
He did not indicate which specific aspects of the merger agreement it might look into or how long the investigation might take.
Credit Suisse and UBS did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Last month, UBS said it would acquire rival Credit Suisse for 3 billion Swiss francs ($3.3 billion) in a deal struck by the Swiss government, central bank and market regulator.
Sources told Reuters the bank is trying to close the deal by the end of April.
A poll of Swiss economists found that nearly half of them thought a takeover of Credit Suisse was not the best solution, and warned that the situation had damaged Switzerland’s reputation as a banking centre.
The deal, which was also designed to help secure financial stability globally during a time of turmoil, has critics worried about the size of the combined bank, with $1.6 trillion in assets and more than 120,000 employees worldwide.
Up to 30% of employees could lose their jobs due to the takeover, according to an unnamed senior manager at UBS quoted by Swiss media.
($1 = 0.9148 Swiss francs)
Additional reporting by Sneha Bhowmick in Bengaluru and Gabriel Tetro-Farber in Geneva; Editing by David Goodman and David Holmes
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