Silence speaks volumes as Switzerland still reels from bank meltdown

ZURICH — In one of Europe’s wealthiest squares, overlooked by the looming headquarters of a huge international bank that disintegrated just weeks ago, the impeccably dressed men and women who shuffle in and out of gleaming offices are in the grip of a Mafia-like omertà.

“You won’t get anything from anyone,” one of them says with a firmness that’s meant to draw a line under any conversation before it’s even begun. The informal code of silence dominates. His friend drags him away, through the doors of a second global bank — the one that rescued the first for 3 billion Swiss francs.

This is Paradeplatz in Zurich, Switzerland’s biggest city. Home to Credit Suisse, whose collapse in March after 167 years could have triggered a full-on global crisis had UBS not been forced to step in and take it over. The recriminations started almost immediately. Now, amid its rattling trams and luxury chocolate shops, this 17th-century square could rival the Vatican for the way the fog of secrecy has descended.

Stay there long enough and an occasional whisper about the demise of the once-great bank might be overheard. Speculation, nothing more. Gossip about political repercussions or what could happen to bonuses — exchanged over strong coffee and furtive early-morning glances at the Financial Times or Neue Züricher Zeitung. But not with outsiders of course, and certainly not with those who approach with journalist notebook in hand.

It’s easy to spot the bankers in the Swiss financial capital: a perfectly tailored blue suit, single-breasted trench coat, hand-held briefcase (leather, preferably). And what about the demise of Credit Suisse, then? “We can’t talk about it,” says one of them over an espresso with a colleague.

Turn the corner, to where a younger man is smoking, behind the dead bank’s HQ that still stands at Paradeplatz’s northern end. He dismisses all questions too: “For that, we have corporate comms.”

Nobody’s responsible

There’s a reason for all this silence. The Alpine nation, known for its utmost discretion in its role as banker to the world’s rich, is still trying to process exactly what went wrong — and what to do about the people who took Credit Suisse to the brink.

The public is “very angry,” according to Tobias Straumann, professor of modern and economic history at the University of Zurich, especially as it’s been just 15 years since UBS’ own public bailout.

“The taxpayer has to save a bank, where people earned a lot of money, and nobody’s responsible now,” he said. “That’s the feeling.”

With national elections coming up in October, the question turns to who will be on the receiving end of that feeling. Just the bankers themselves? The regulators who watched it go up in flames? The politicians who set the rules in the first place? All of the above?

The Swiss parliament has started exerting its authority — rejecting the government’s request to approve an emergency credit line underpinning the takeover. But that was largely symbolic. It will decide in June whether to launch a parliamentary commission — which would then be able to summon those involved for questioning.

“My prediction would be that in the short run, not much is going to happen,” Straumann said. “But probably after the elections, then you’re going to see a bigger coalition that really does something,”

Pig market

It won’t help the public mood that some Credit Suisse bankers plan to sue over lost bonuses. A few hundred years ago Paradeplatz was known as Säumärt — pig market, and now accusations of snouts in troughs have become ever more common in public discourse.

Céline Widmer, a Swiss Social Democrat lawmaker, has called for a ban on bankers’ bonuses, as well as for higher capital requirements for lenders to make them safer. In her view, Switzerland’s financial watchdog should also get stronger sanctioning powers.

“It was the behavior of the banks, which [demonstrated] they are not accountable,” she said of what went wrong at Credit Suisse.

The Swiss authorities find themselves under intense scrutiny. Although they stopped the bank’s collapse from triggering broader financial contagion, the government and regulators face questions over why they didn’t step in earlier.

As it was, Credit Suisse had problems for years, but over a few days in March, it rapidly lost the trust of financial markets amid broader panic over bank failures in the U.S.

According to Finance Minister Karin Keller-Sutter, the bank would have run out of money without the hasty takeover by UBS, as clients pulled their deposits and its shares and bond prices tanked.

The government promised to swallow up to 9 billion francs of losses if needed and the Swiss central bank offered 100 billion francs of liquidity.

Legal cases are underway contesting the decisions taken over that pivotal weekend of the merger — including the Swiss financial watchdog’s wipeout of 16 billion francs of Credit Suisse bonds, reversing the usual hierarchy of losses in a collapse.

Those investors, whose bonds are now worth nothing, have won an early victory by forcing the release of a contested emergency decree.

A banking monster

And life might get harder for the other bank with its headquarters in Paradeplatz now that it’s gobbled up its rival.

“We created a monster with UBS,” said Thomas Borer, a former Swiss ambassador to Germany, who is involved in representing the interests of Credit Suisse bondholders wiped out in the takeover.

“[It’s now] one of the biggest banks in the world when it comes to wealth management. We are not one of the biggest countries in the world. How should we regulate that? That’s now where the debate is focusing on.”

The parliamentary investigation could lead that debate — and even Switzerland’s tight-lipped bankers are keen.

“We are supporting that there be an independent and complete and open-minded review of these events,” said August Benz, deputy chief executive of the Swiss Bankers Association.

Credit Suisse’s failure had triggered “certain emotions,” Benz said, but hoped an inquiry would help Switzerland pick “the right measures” in response to the bank’s failure. He pushed back against the idea that a global bank like UBS could be too big for the country.

“Germany has one [globally systemic bank], Italy has one, Spain has one, [the Netherlands has one] and Switzerland looks like it’ll have one,” he said.

Stable no more

Back on the streets of Zurich, Credit Suisse’s HQ is a visible reminder of the uncertainty brought about by its failure, peering over at UBS across Paradeplatz.

“It’s a huge institution that suddenly disappears,” says Reinhard Berger, a 36-year-old chemist, waiting for the tram.

A few blocks away, Eliane Christen, a patent engineer, 35, is wistful. The failure makes her “unsure about the stability we always say Switzerland has,” she says. The stability seemed to vanish in one weekend.