Europe

Sight deposits held by the Swiss National Bank (SNB) jumped last week, data showed on Monday, suggesting that both Credit Suisse (CSGN.S) and UBS (UBSG.S) may have taken big chunks of emergency liquidity to secure their merger, Reuters reported. Sight deposits - cash held by the SNB for commercial banks overnight - jumped to 567 billion Swiss francs ($619 billion) from 515 billion francs a week earlier.

The Swiss government was compelled to intervene to save Credit Suisse Group AG as the troubled bank wouldn’t have survived another day of trading amid a crisis of investor confidence, Finance Minister Karin Keller-Sutter said, Bloomberg News reported. “CS would not have survived Monday,” Keller-Sutter said in an interview with Zurich newspaper NZZ.

For a bank, a loss of confidence is a fatal blow. After that occurred at several banks in the United States and Switzerland in the past few weeks, policymakers in the eurozone have been trying to shore up confidence in the region’s banking sector, the New York Times reported. At a conference in Frankfurt last week, representatives from the European Central Bank spoke confidently of the strength of the financial regulations and the intensity of the banking oversight in the 20-country bloc that uses the euro currency.

Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni’s government is preparing a new package worth €4.9 billion ($5.3 billion) that extends support to low-income families while weaning others off aid, Bloomberg News reported. The money won’t require extra deficit spending by tapping a €21 billion reserve already set aside in the budget, as well as reaping the benefit of higher-than-expected economic growth, said the people, who declined to be named as discussions over the bill are ongoing.

European Central Bank head Christine Lagarde told EU leaders euro zone banks were resilient because they have strong capital and liquidity positions, but that the ECB could provide liquidity if needed, EU officials said on Friday, Reuters reported. Lagarde was presenting her assessment of economic and financial developments to EU leaders as European banking stocks fell sharply, with Deutsche Bank and UBS knocked by worries that actions by regulators and central banks have not yet contained the worst problems.

Swiss financial regulator FINMA said it was considering whether to take disciplinary action against Credit Suisse managers after Switzerland's second largest bank had to be rescued last week by UBS, Reuters reported. FINMA President Marlene Amstad told Swiss newspaper NZZ am Sonntag it was "still open" whether new proceedings would be started, but the regulator's main focus was on "the transitional phase of integration" and "preserving financial stability".

Some bankers and traders are grappling with how to interact with Credit Suisse across various markets including debt and foreign exchange, with some increasing scrutiny when dealing with the Swiss bank or its products, sources said. On Sunday, UBS offered to pay CHF 3 billion ($3.23 billion) for Credit Suisse, a hastily-agreed merger engineered by Swiss authorities following a scramble to save the bank, Reuters reported.

The Swedish central bank might have underestimated inflationary pressure and will likely have to stick to its forecasts of another interest rate hike in April, Riksbank Governor Erik Thedeen said on Sunday, Reuters reported. The central bank has raised rates to 3% from 0% a year ago and has yet to curb 9.4% inflation, well above the 2% target. It hiked the benchmark rate by 50 basis points in February and has indicated another hike by 25 or 50 basis points in April. "It could be that the inflation process is worse than we thought," Erik Thedeen told SVT television.

The Swiss National Bank raised its interest rate by 50 basis points and signaled more to come as it resumed its inflation fight just days after the downfall of the country’s second-biggest bank became the epicenter of global financial turmoil, Bloomberg News reported. Officials lifted the benchmark to 1.5%, an outcome predicted by most economists before Credit Suisse Group AG’s forced takeover by larger rival UBS Group AG clouded the outlook with worsened market turbulence earlier this week.

The chairman of Switzerland’s largest bank received an urgent call last week. On the other end were three top Swiss officials who delivered an ultimatum dressed up as a proposal. UBS Group AG needed to rescue its failing rival, Credit Suisse Group AG. For any country, it would be a financial emergency. For Switzerland, the stakes verged on existential, the Wall Street Journal reported. Its economic model and national identity, cultivated over centuries, were built on safeguarding the world’s wealth. It wasn’t just about a bank. Switzerland itself needed rescuing.