Two months after many investors were caught off guard by the writedown of Credit Suisse Group AG’s Additional Tier 1 bonds, the securities are once again at the center of a market debate. This time the divide is over whether the event will trigger an insurance payout, Bloomberg News reported. Funds including FourSixThree Capital and Diameter Capital Partners have been buying credit default swaps linked to another set of junior Credit Suisse bonds, betting that the derivatives panel tasked with overseeing the market will rule that a credit event has occurred.
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A potential dispute over the wipeout of Credit Suisse Group AG’s riskiest bonds in Asia has drawn the attention of several funds experienced in financing lawsuits for retail investors, Bloomberg News reported. Burford Capital Ltd., which says it is the world’s biggest provider of commercial legal finance, is tracking the development as law firms rally aggrieved bondholders. Last week, a group of more than 60 holders in Asia filed a claim against Switzerland’s banking regulator over the decision to write down about 16 billion Swiss francs ($18.1 billion) of additional tier-one notes.
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Six weeks since the deal to rescue Credit Suisse Group AG was rushed through, at least 120 claims have been filed against the Swiss banking watchdog’s decision to wipe out about $18 billion worth of its high-risk bonds as part of the deal, Bloomberg News reported. As of May 2, the claims represent around 1,300 individual bondholders, according to a spokesman for the Swiss Federal Administrative Court. Claimants focused on a notional deadline to file of May 3.
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UBS was considering the potential impact of buying struggling rival Credit Suisse as early as December, months before the takeover was hastily arranged by Swiss authorities in March, according to a regulatory filing, Reuters reported. The filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) also showed UBS concluded in February that buying Credit Suisse was not desirable, but that it should prepare in case its rival encountered "serious financial difficulties".
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Hundreds more Credit Suisse Group AG bondholders sued Switzerland’s banking regulator after their securities valued at about $1.7 billion were wiped out during the lender’s government-brokered takeover by UBS Group AG, Bloomberg News reported.
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Credit Suisse Group earned solid marks for crisis preparedness as recently as last year, underscoring how quickly the plunge in confidence blindsided regulators and investors before the bank’s near collapse, Bloomberg News reported. “It is clear that there are important lessons to be learned from the Credit Suisse crisis for future crisis preparations,” Urban Angehrn, chief executive officer of Swiss financial markets regulator Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (Finma), said in a statement on Wednesday (Apr 26). The regulator will “contribute to this objective”, he said.
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UBS said on Tuesday it had set aside more money to draw a line under its involvement in toxic U.S. mortgages, halving its first-quarter profit as the bank girds itself for the "hard" task of swallowing fallen rival Credit Suisse, Reuters reported. Sergio Ermotti, brought back as UBS chief executive to steer the takeover, said it aims to close the deal with fellow Zurich-based bank Credit Suisse by May but warned that it could take four years for a full integration. "There is much to do and there will difficult decisions to be made in the coming months," he said during a call with analysts.
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Credit Suisse Group AG gave a glimpse of its chaotic final weeks before a rescue last month by UBS Group AG in a first-quarter earnings report that showed operating revenue diving and customers rushing to pull deposits, the Wall Street Journal reported. The Swiss bank lost more than $2 billion from its businesses in the first quarter, but posted a prodigious net profit because of the paper gains realized from writing off $17 billion in bonds. Customers withdrew around $75 billion in deposits, in a run that the bank says has moderated since the UBS deal announcement on March 19.
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Switzerland's UBS said on Monday it will retain Christian Bluhm as chief risk officer for the "foreseeable future" as it bolsters controls during the takeover of Credit Suisse, Reuters reported. Chief Executive Sergio Ermotti is reshaping the ranks of UBS as it works on integrating Credit Suisse, the 167-year-old Swiss banking rival which it rescued in March. UBS had said in November that Bluhm, who has been its risk chief since 2016, would step down to focus on his photography business. Damian Vogel, who currently overseas risk in its wealth management unit, was set to replace Bluhm in May.
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Credit Suisse Group AG bondholders have launched a legal challenge in Switzerland against regulators’ decision to write down $17 billion in securities as part of UBS Group AG’s rescue of the troubled bank last month. Bondholders holding about 4.5 billion Swiss francs ($5 billion) of Credit Suisse’s canceled debt want the decision to write down their bonds revoked or amended, according to an outline of their appeal made in a Swiss administrative court and reviewed by the Wall Street Journal.
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