Three years after a Swiss banking rescue cost Saudi Arabia’s largest lender more than $1 billion, Credit Suisse is set to outlive its buyer, UBS, at least as a legal entity in the Kingdom.
Saudi Arabia’s Capital Market Authority approved the merger of UBS Saudi Arabia into Credit Suisse Saudi Arabia on Monday, making Saudi Arabia one of the few markets where the Credit Suisse legal entity remains the surviving company after UBS’s global takeover.
In most countries, UBS has either absorbed Credit Suisse operations into its own local entity or is in the process of doing so. The Saudi structure is therefore unusual, although UBS remains the owner of the combined business.
#TheBackstory: Saudi National Bank (SNB), backed by the Public Investment Fund (PIF), invested about $1.5 billion in Credit Suisse in late 2022, acquiring nearly 10% of the troubled Swiss lender.
Just four months later, SNB Chairman Ammar Al-Khudairy told Bloomberg TV that the bank would “absolutely not” inject more capital, citing regulatory restrictions on increasing its stake beyond 10%.
The remarks accelerated a selloff in Credit Suisse shares, already under pressure from customer withdrawals and a wider banking crisis. Days later, Swiss authorities arranged an emergency sale to UBS for about $3.4 billion, without a shareholder vote.
The deal left SNB nursing losses exceeding $1 billion, with its nearly 10% Credit Suisse holding converted into approximately 0.5% of UBS. Al-Khudairy resigned as chairman later that month.
#TheSaudiResponse: The fallout extended beyond SNB. In 2025, PIF Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan said the sovereign fund would stop investing in Swiss financial markets, criticizing the way authorities handled the rescue and its impact on shareholders.
“We’re not going to invest in the financial markets in Switzerland,” he said, describing the sudden changes imposed on investors as a major warning sign.
#WhyItMatters: The latest merger brings the story full circle. Credit Suisse, whose collapse triggered one of Saudi Arabia’s most costly overseas banking investments, will now remain the surviving legal entity of the combined business in the Kingdom.
The decision adds an unusual chapter to a banking crisis that reshaped Saudi investors’ confidence in Switzerland’s financial markets.
