Das Ende der Credit Suisse – Von Verantwortung, Schuld und Wut | DOK | SRF

The end of an era: Credit Suisse will be acquired by UBS on March 19, 2023. The Swiss Credit Institution, later Credit Suisse, was founded in 1856. Now it's history. "SRF DOK" explores the background of this historic event. _____________________________________________ 🔔 Subscribe to SRF Dok on YouTube now https://www.youtube.com/srfdok?sub_co... 👉 Want to suggest a topic? Then write to us at: [email protected] _____________________________________________ In 2008, Switzerland had to bail out UBS. Driven by their greed for ever-increasing bonuses, investment bankers, including those at UBS, had speculated recklessly on American mortgage-backed securities. This triggered a global financial crisis. UBS teetered on the brink of collapse. On October 16, 2008, the government and the Swiss National Bank (SNB) presented their rescue plan to save UBS: a total of 68 billion Swiss francs to support the struggling major bank. "Never again!" everyone agreed at the time. The state should never again have to bail out a major bank. Fifteen years later, the state had to save Credit Suisse (CS) from collapse. How could it have come to this? Why did CS get into such dire financial straits that in the end only one way out remained: the sale to UBS? The answer: CS was plagued by scandal after scandal over the past 15 years. This led to repeated fines amounting to billions. But perhaps even more crucially, it caused a gradual erosion of trust in the bank. Who is to blame? Primarily, certainly, the board of directors. But also the CEOs. They all raked in huge sums – and simultaneously delivered a dismal performance. Besides the economic dimension, this story also has a political dimension. In 2008, Parliament realized that Switzerland has so-called "systemically important banks." These are banks so large that the state cannot allow them to fail, because doing so could drag the entire economy down with them. In modern parlance, this is called "too big to fail." So, policymakers attempted to solve this problem by developing a plan for when such a situation should arise again. The Swiss part of the bank would be separated and preserved so that domestic operations could continue as usual. The foreign parts would be allowed to fail. However, it has now become clear that this is theoretical. In practice, it doesn't work. Has the problem been solved with the takeover of Credit Suisse by UBS? No, quite the opposite. It's much bigger. UBS will now be so large that the state will also have to bail it out if it runs into trouble. And then we're talking about even larger sums of money. Frankly, people should now be told: The next crisis is inevitable. The Swiss part of the bank would be separated and preserved so that everything could continue as usual. _____________________________________________ ▪ A film by Simon Christen, Liz Horowitz, Karin Bauer ▪ Cinematography: Frank Messmer, Sergio Cassini, Gery Gafner, Biörn Lindroos, Roberto Antonilli ▪ Editing: Roman Crottogini, Felix Hulliger, O'Neil Bürgi, Anabel Castro, Thomas Waidelich ▪ Production: Monika Zingg ▪ Director: Nathalie Rufer _____________________________________________ More on this topic can be found in the podcast "The End of Credit Suisse": https://www.srf.ch/audio/news-plus-hi... _____________________________________________ This is "DOK": Our in-depth documentaries on topics from society, nature, politics, sports, and business. They are stories as unique as life itself. NEW DOCUMENTARIES AND REPORTS EVERY WEEK _____________________________________________ 👇 More documentaries & reports can be found here: 👥 SRF Dok on Facebook: https://fb.com/srfdok 🎧 More stories to listen to: https://www.srf.ch/audio/themen/mensc... 👀 More documentaries on Play SRF: https://www.srf.ch/play/tv/themen/dok... _____________________________________________ Channel info: The SRF Documentaries & Reports teams report factually, avoid "scripted reality," and are committed to journalistic integrity. The editorial team's credo: We show life in all its shades. _____________________________________________ Social media netiquette from SRF: ► https://www.srf.ch/social-netiquette #SRFDok #Doku #Credit Suisse #Dok #SRF