ZURICH (Reuters) – Switzerland’s central bank considered giving Credit Suisse a 50 billion Swiss franc ($56.87 billion) lifeline in November, months before the bank had to be rescued, according to a book on the collapse of the 167-year-old lender published on Wednesday.
The Swiss National Bank Chairman Thomas Jordan had discussed giving Credit Suisse the injection with the Swiss finance minister at the time, Ueli Maurer, according to Dirk Schuetz’s “Too close to the wind – Why Credit Suisse had to go down.”
The Swiss National Bank declined to comment.
Credit Suisse had been weakened by a run in October when a social media storm led to clients to pull funds at a pace that saw the bank breach some regulatory requirements.
But details on the bank’s financial health in the months leading up to its rescue have remained unclear.
As of March 15, Credit Suisse said it still fulfilled and overshot basically all regulatory requirements.
Yet the central bank only days later provided Credit Suisse with over 200 billion Swiss francs in liquidity assistance as part of a takeover that saw the rival UBS buying the lender.
($1 = 0.8819 Swiss francs)
(Reporting by Noele Illien; Editing by Elisa Martinuzzi and Tomasz Janowski)
