Can UBS make the most of finance’s deal of the century?

“LIMITED but intensive.” That is how a regulatory filing described, with something approaching wry understatement, the few days of due diligence before UBS announced its deal to rescue Credit Suisse on Mar 19.

The acquisition was the first ever tie-up between two “global systemically important banks”, a designation introduced after the global financial crisis of 2007 to 2009. Since it was announced, the pace has barely slowed.

In April, Sergio Ermotti, a Swiss cost-cutter who ran UBS between 2011 and 2020, returned as the firm’s chief executive. The same month, Credit Suisse’s results laid bare the brutal run it had suffered. Combined financial statements followed in May. The fine print of an agreement with Swiss authorities to absorb potential losses emerged in June. Scores of Credit Suisse bankers have rushed for the exit.