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By John Revill and Noele Illien
ZURICH (Reuters) -UBS and the Swiss government agreed on Friday how they will share losses linked to the bank's emergency takeover of Credit Suisse, clearing the way for the deal to close within days, and creating a giant Swiss bank and cementing its position as a global wealth manager.
Under the deal, negotiated since Credit Suisse's rescue in March, the government will guarantee up to 9 billion Swiss francs ($9.98 billion) of losses UBS may incur from the sale of its rival's assets beyond 5 billion francs the lender is due to cover itself.
It comes with various conditions, including the bank's commitment to keeps its headquarters in Switzerland, the government said in a statement.
The loss protection agreement will become effective with the completion of the Credit Suisse takeover, expected as early as June 12, UBS said in a separate statement.
Its chief executive Sergio Ermotti, hinted later that the bank was, in fact, on track to finalise the transaction on Monday.
"From Monday we will be new colleagues," Ermotti told the Swiss Economic Forum in Interlaken.
The state money will not come for free, with UBS having to pay various set up and maintenance fees, as well as premiums on any money drawn.
The cash was made available by the government to facilitate the emergency takeover of Credit Suisse and avoid a broader banking crisis that a collapse of the lender could provoke.
The agreement will cover a portfolio of Credit Suisse assets that were difficult to assess in the few days the banks had to hash out a deal and which are not needed as part of the future core business of UBS.
The government said the guarantee covered assets with a volume of around 44 billion Swiss francs, an equivalent of about 3% of the combined assets of the merged group, mainly made of derivatives, loans, legacy assets and structured products.
Valuations of the losses are expected to be made available during the third quarter of 2023, the government said, while their scale was "highly dependent on the actual wind-down of the assets concerned and market developments."
"Consequently, it is not yet possible to estimate the probability of the guarantee being drawn and the amount involved," the government said.
HAVE IT, NOT USE IT
The government's and UBS's priority was to "minimise potential losses and risks so that recourse to the federal guarantee is avoided to the greatest extent possible," it said in the statement.
Ermotti has said UBS leadership would do everything possible to prevent Swiss taxpayers from bearing the costs of the takeover.