Asian financial authorities say the takeover of the Swiss lender is unlikely to affect the stability of local banks.
Financial authorities in Asia have downplayed the local impact of the Credit Suisse turmoil and say they do not expect the takeover of the troubled Swiss bank to affect the stability of local lenders.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said on Monday that Credit Suisse would operate normally in the city-state, with customers having full access to other accounts, following the purchase of the lender by UBS Group over the weekend.
“The acquisition is not expected to have an impact on the stability of the banking system in Singapore,” MAS said in a statement.
“MAS will continue to closely monitor the domestic financial system and international developments and stands ready to provide liquidity through its range of facilities to ensure that Singapore’s financial system remains stable and financial markets continue to function in an orderly manner,” it said. the city-state. said the central bank.
Hong Kong’s Monetary Authority (HKMA) and the city’s Securities and Futures Commission said Credit Suisse is open to business as usual and the bank’s local assets of 100 billion Hong Kong dollars ($12.7 billion) represent less than 0.5 percent of the total in the Chinese territory’s banking sector.
“The exposure of the local banking sector to Credit Suisse is insignificant,” HKMA said in a statement. “Hong Kong’s banking sector is resilient with strong capital and liquidity positions. The total solvency ratio of locally incorporated authorized institutions was 20.1 percent at the end of 2022, well above the international minimum requirement of 8 percent.”
In Japan, Chief of Cabinet Hirokazu Matsuno welcomed moves by regulators to bolster confidence and said he did not expect lender turmoil in Europe and the United States to spread to local banks.
“Japan’s financial system as a whole is stable,” Matsuno said.
The announcements came as markets in Asia fell in early Monday morning trading amid ongoing jitters about the health of the global financial system, with major indices falling in Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Australia. China’s blue-chip CSI300 and Shanghai Composite Index gained as new monetary easing measures from Beijing helped ease global banking concerns.
UBS, Switzerland’s largest bank, agreed to buy Credit Suisse for 3 billion Swiss francs ($3.24 billion) on Sunday amid a growing crisis of confidence in the global banking system.
The Swiss government said the deal was necessary to prevent economic unrest from spreading across the country.
Credit Suisse, which received a $54 billion cash injection from the Swiss central bank last week, is the latest financial institution to lose confidence following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank in the United States.
The Zurich-based lender is one of the world’s largest asset managers and one of 30 banks considered systemically important to the global economy.
