Credit Suisse takeover is no 'deal of the century' but leaves UBS stronger, says CEO

UBS Chief Executive Officer Sergio Ermotti dismissed critics' warning about the size of his bank's balance sheet on Wednesday, arguing that UBS's rescue of Credit Suisse had created a larger but also stronger lender. Ermotti returned to run UBS after the biggest bank merger since the global financial crisis was hastily arranged by Swiss authorities ten months ago to avert Credit Suisse's collapse. Integrating the two arch rivals is a huge, multi-year task that will mean thousands of job losses in Switzerland and elsewhere and a single financial institution with a balance sheet around double the size of the Swiss economy. + UBS job cuts in Switzerland to be based on ‘meritocracy’ Speaking at the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos on Wednesday, Ermotti said while he understood concerns, some in Switzerland were being "indoctrinated almost daily by a lot of academics" to focus on the bank balance sheet size. "If you look at risk-weighted assets as a percentage of...