Two Swiss bank fallers at Tuesday morning pixel time:
Why the sharp-ish move?
The FT reports that Credit Suisse banker, Christos Bagios, has been arrested in connection with the US’s long-running investigation into tax evasion and Swiss banking secrecy. Which doesn’t do much to explain the fall in UBS’s share price — except for some additional detail provided by the New York Times.
Here are some thoughts from RBS’s banking team:
Various media report that a senior wealth management rep of CS has been arrested in the US, in connection with an investigation into offshore banking issues. From the NYT, we understand that this banker joined CS only in Feb 2009 and worked at UBS before. CS has always maintained that they play fully by the rules re US clients, and the arrested banker is working for an SEC registered advisory unit of CS in Zurich. In our view, it is more likely that the investigation relates back to the time this individual spent at UBS, which was embroiled in a major investigation in the last couple of years (resulting in far-reaching client data transfers and a painful fine). Possibly another leg to come.
UBS did not immediately reply to requests for comment — though we hear that the US case with UBS was officially done and dusted with that 2009 settlement.
Related link:
A vault unlocked - FT Analysis