Credit Suisse's takeover is under investigation.

 

Switzer­land’s fed­eral pro­sec­utor has opened an invest­ig­a­tion into the state­backed takeover of Credit Suisse by its rival UBS, as the bank’s share­hold­ers pre­pare to vent their anger at its last annual meet­ing.

The Bern-based pro­sec­utor is look­ing into poten­tial breaches of Swiss crim­inal law by gov­ern­ment offi­cials, reg­u­lat­ors and exec­ut­ives at the two banks, which agreed to an emer­gency mer­ger last month throughout a frantic week­end to avert a poten­tially cata­strophic fin­an­cial crisis.

The pro­sec­utor’s office told the Fin­an­cial Times it «wants to pro­act­ively ful­fil its mis­sion and respons­ib­il­ity to con­trib­ute to a clean Swiss fin­an­cial centre». A focus of the probe con­cerns sens­it­ive inform­a­tion from the nego­ti­ations that were leaked to the press and could con­sti­tute a breach of state secrecy or indus­trial espi­on­age laws, accord­ing to a per­son famil­iar with the invest­ig­a­tion.

Share­hold­ers of UBS and Credit Suisse — who were denied a say on the deal by gov­ern­ment fiat — will get a chance to air their griev­ances in the com­ing days as both banks hold annual meet­ings.

Credit Suisse’s board is expec­ted to bear the brunt of investors’ anger when they gather tomor­row at a 15,000capa­city ice hockey sta­dium in Zurich. UBS is press­ing with plans to integ­rate its erstwhile rival into its busi­ness. It has whittled down a list of man­age­ment con­sult­ants to advise on the deal to four. It would decide in the com­ing days whether to award the con­tract to Bain & Com­pany, Boston Con­sult­ing Group, McKin­sey or Oliver Wyman, said people involved in the pro­cess.

Politi­cians have also ques­tioned the use of emer­gency powers by the gov­ern­ment — the seven-per­son Fed­eral Coun­cil — to extend tax­payer-backed fin­an­cial guar­an­tees to UBS and to silence pos­sible share­holder oppos­i­tion.

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