Credit Suisse went last weekend to Swiss National Bank for “a multi-million dollar amount” to ensure its liquidity, Finance Minister Karin Keller-Sutter told local broadcaster SRF on Saturday.
The Swiss bank had said last week that it intended to borrow up to 50 billion Swiss francs from the country’s central bank to increase its liquidity.
“Last weekend, Credit Suisse withdrew billions to protect their liquidity,” said Keller-Sutter, noting that this was because clients had again withdrawn money, but also because counterparties required collateral when making business with the bank.
Keller-Sutter stressed that the figure was “presumably” in excess of 50 billion Swiss francs ($54.35 billion), but said the Swiss National Bank had the exact figure.
“The important thing is that the situation has stabilized,” he said.
UBS agreed on Sunday to buy Credit Suisse for 3 billion Swiss francs in shares and agreed to take up to 5 billion francs in losses in a merger engineered by Swiss authorities to prevent further turbulence in global banking markets.
