Struggling Swiss banking giant Credit Suisse has reportedly agreed to be bought by arch-rival UBS at a discount to Friday’s closing price, after seeing a wave of customer deposits from the bank. UBS will buy UBS, -5.50% Credit Suisse CS, -6.94% in an all-stock deal worth more than $2 billion, the Financial Times reported, citing people with direct knowledge of the transaction. Bloomberg News reported similar deal terms. UBS is offering 0.50 francs per share, which compares with Credit Suisse’s CSGN, -8.01% from Friday’s closing price of 1.86 francs. UBS initially made a bid of just 0.25 francs per share, the FT said. Separately, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Swiss National Bank offered UBS about $100 billion in liquidity to absorb Credit Suisse. It comes after the SNB agreed last week to provide a 50 billion franc loan to Credit Suisse. The Federal Reserve is working with its Swiss counterpart on the deal, as both banks have major operations in the collapse of US Credit Suisse just days after the collapse of US banks SVB Financial and Signature Bank. While Credit Suisse, as well as Swiss authorities, said they do not have similar problems, they have seen customers leave. After wealthy clients withdrew about $100 billion from Credit Suisse in the fourth quarter, they again saw large outflows last week, the FT reported. Credit Suisse has lost money for five consecutive quarters
