See: U.S. Taxpayers Also Bailing Out FOREIGN Banks
"Swiss bank giant accepts $60b lifeline" by Nelson D. Schwartz, New York Times News Service | October 17, 2008
PARIS - Switzerland, a banking redoubt considered until recently to be literally and figuratively above the global financial tumult, succumbed yesterday and announced a bailout plan for its biggest bank, UBS.
Hit harder than any other European financial institution by losses stemming from bad investments in subprime US mortgage debt, UBS will receive a lifeline worth as much as $60 billion from the Swiss National Bank.
The country's other banking powerhouse, Credit Suisse, said it would raise $8.75 billion in fresh capital from private backers, including the Qatar Investment Authority, after turning down the offer of direct government help.
Even as the help for UBS was revealed, Swiss regulators publicly blamed the bank for poor risk controls that worsened its losses on toxic American debt. Although UBS said it had earned a slight profit of 296 million francs or about $260 million, it disclosed that private depositors had withdrawn 49.3 billion francs, much of it during the last turbulent weeks of the quarter.
Sigh: Healthy Banks to Get Bailout Bill Loot
In the coming quarters, UBS will be under pressure to stanch that outflow, because its private wealth management business has long been considered the company's crown jewel and a profit engine. UBS acquired its huge portfolio of toxic American mortgage debt in an effort to capture higher yields over the last few years, assuming wrongly that its high credit ratings would protect it from losses when the American housing marked soured.
No, the government just got the TAXPAYERS to do that!!!
Koagne said it was notable that Credit Suisse, like HSBC in Britain, did not want to participate in a government rescue effort, perhaps fearing that the government authorities would try to dictate bank strategy as well as bonus and compensation plans for senior executives. --more--"
No, they wouldn't want that: Government-Funded Golden Parachutes
