The Swiss banking giant UBS is preparing to cut 35,000 jobs in the coming months with the acquisition of its old rival Credit Suisse, the Bloomberg news agency said on Tuesday. This number represents more than half of Credit Suisse’s 45,000 employees.
On March 19, UBS had agreed to buy Credit Suisse under pressure from the authorities for 3 billion Swiss francs (an equivalent sum in euros). The crisis of confidence, following a series of scandals and virulent criticism of risk management, had brought Credit Suisse to the brink of bankruptcy.
Reduce the size
According to Bloomberg, citing two sources familiar with the matter, UBS intends to reduce this total combined workforce by around 30%, or 35,000 people.
The agency says, citing those same sources, that employees have been told they should expect three waves of job cuts this year, with the first scheduled for the end of July. The other two would follow in September and October.
Employees at Credit Suisse’s investment bank in London, New York and parts of Asia are expected to bear the brunt of the cuts.
The fact that UBS’s forced takeover of Credit Suisse leads to job cuts is not new. Employment will be “the most difficult wheel” of integration, UBS chief Sergio Ermotti said recently at the Swiss Economic Forum, a conference that brings together Swiss companies in Interlaken.
However, he felt that job cuts were inevitable if only because of the duplication of some of the activities of the two banks.
Source: BFM TV
