UBS confident about Credit Suisse deal despite ‘huge’ risk

By JAMEY KEATEN and DAVID McHUGH
Associated Press

GENEVA (AP) — The head of UBS has voiced confidence that the Swiss bank will succeed in a government-engineered takeover of hobbled rival Credit Suisse. Chairman Colm Kelleher pledged Wednesday that the deal will reduce costs, benefit shareholders and buttress Swiss finance despite “huge” risk in knitting the global lenders together. At the annual UBS shareholders meeting, Kelleher said the $3.25 billion takeover would close in the next few months but fully integrating the banks is expected to take three to four years. He alluded to the complexity of the first-ever merger of two “global systemically important banks.” Meanwhile, Swiss regulators say the deal offered the least risk of spreading a wider crisis and damaging Switzerland’s standing as a financial center.