British Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt in London’s Downing Street
LONDON (Reuters) – UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt and Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey have been in regular contact over the weekend over the fate of Credit Suisse, a source familiar with the matter said.
Other sources told Reuters on Saturday that UBS was considering a takeover of Credit Suisse, which has been battered in the stock market since its largest shareholder announced it would not bail out the bank.
Spokesmen for the Treasury and the UK Treasury did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesman for the Bank of England (BoE), which supervises banks, declined to comment.
The UK is an important market for the Swiss bank, whose UK entity has $60 billion in risk-weighted assets, a measure of risk, according to the group’s latest filings.
In the United States, Credit Suisse’s risk-weighted assets are valued at $44.6 billion.
(Report Sinead Cruise, with Stefania Spezzati; written by Elisa Martinuzzi; French version Claude Chendjou)