Credit Suisse crisis: over 9,000 job cuts predicted

Even though banking giant UBS is buying troubled rival Credit Suisse for almost $3.25 billion, there are reports that the Swiss lender was in the process of cutting 9,000 jobs in an effort to save itself.

According to Bloomberg, that’s only the beginning. After rival UBS Group agreed to buy the troubled bank, the final number of job cuts could be much higher.

The merger creates significant overlaps. The two lenders together employed almost 125,000 people at the end of last year, with about 30% of the total in Switzerland.

Swiss authorities pushed for UBS to take over its smaller rival after a plan for Credit Suisse to borrow up to 50 billion francs ($54 billion) failed to reassure investors and the bank's customers. Shares of Credit Suisse and other banks plunged last week after the failure of two banks in the US sparked concerns about other potentially shaky institutions in the global financial system.

Credit Suisse is among the 30 financial institutions known as globally systemically important banks, and authorities worried about the fallout if it were to fail.