British banking watchdogs have given their blessing to a takeover of Credit Suisse by its Swiss peer UBS, as financial regulators around the world race to contain the industry’s biggest crisis since 2008.
Sky News understands that the Bank of England has indicated to international counterparts and to UBS that it will support the emergency transaction, which both European banking giants want to announce later on Sunday.
Credit Suisse has been brought to the brink of financial calamity despite securing a $54bn (£44bn) credit line from Switzerland’s central bank several days ago.
The move, which was designed to reassure markets and depositors, failed to halt a rush of customer withdrawals, prompting a request from the Swiss government for UBS to explore a takeover of its historic rival late last week.
Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, and Andrew Bailey, the Bank of England governor, are being kept informed about developments relating to the most significant global banking merger since the financial meltdown of 15 years ago.
Although Credit Suisse has a market capitalisation of just $8bn (£6.6bn) – down from close to $100bn (£82bn) at its 2007 peak – fears for its future have sent shockwaves through financial markets across the world.
Its vast investment bank balance sheet is reported to represent a stumbling block in the talks with UBS, and the precise structure of a deal remained unclear on Sunday morning.
UBS’s board, chaired by the former Morgan Stanley executive Colm Kelleher, is said to have been reluctant to explore a deal with its fellow Swiss bank, which has been forced into a string of capital-raisings after huge fines and restructuring charges.
City sources said authorities in the US had pressed the Swiss government to expedite a solution to the crisis during the course of this weekend.
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Reports suggest that UBS wants the Swiss government to provide a multibillion dollar backstop to insure it against losses arising from the takeover of its smaller rival.
The current tumult in the global banking sector was sparked by the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank in the US earlier this month.
Its UK branch was rescued by HSBC for £1, but a number of other mid-sized American lenders have also been forced to seek emergency funding.
Hopes takeover will avert contagion
Nevertheless, there are hopes that a takeover of Credit Suisse will avert the kind of contagion that evokes genuine comparisons with the crisis of 2008, when banks including Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers collapsed.
Credit Suisse employs approximately 5,000 people in the UK, making it one of the largest investment banking employers in the City.
The Bank of England declined to comment on Sunday, while Credit Suisse and UBS have been contacted for comment.
Specialist search teams, police dogs and divers have been dispatched to find two sisters who vanished in Aberdeen three days ago.
Eliza and Henrietta Huszti, both 32, were last seen on CCTV in the city’s Market Street at Victoria Bridge at about 2.12am on Tuesday.
The siblings were captured crossing the bridge and turning right onto a footpath next to the River Dee in the direction of Aberdeen Boat Club.
Police Scotland has launched a major search and said it is carrying out “extensive inquires” in an effort to find the women.
Chief Inspector Darren Bruce said: “Local officers, led by specialist search advisors, are being assisted by resources including police dogs and our marine unit.”
Aberdeenshire Drone Services told Sky News it has offered to help in the search and is waiting to hear back from Police Scotland.
The sisters, from Aberdeen city centre, are described as slim with long brown hair.
Police said the Torry side of Victoria Bridge where the sisters were last seen contains many commercial and industrial units, with searches taking place in the vicinity.
The force urged businesses in and around the South Esplanade and Menzies Road area to review CCTV footage recorded in the early hours of Tuesday in case it captured anything of significance.
Drivers with relevant dashcam footage are also urged to come forward.
CI Bruce added: “We are continuing to speak to people who know Eliza and Henrietta and we urge anyone who has seen them or who has any information regarding their whereabouts to please contact 101.”
Britain’s gas storage levels are “concerningly low” with less than a week of demand in store, the operator of the country’s largest gas storage site said on Friday.
Plunging temperatures and high demand for gas-fired power stations are the main factors behind the low levels, Centrica said.
The UK is heavily reliant on gas for its home heating and also uses a significant amount for electricity generation.
As of the 9th of January 2025, UK storage sites are 26% lower than last year’s inventory at the same time, leaving them around half full,” Centrica said.
“This means the UK has less than a week of gas demand in store.”
The firm’s Rough gas storage site, a depleted field off England’s east coast, makes up around half of the country’s gas storage capacity.
Glasgow has been a city crying out for solutions to a devastating drugs epidemic that is ravaging people hooked on deadly narcotics.
We have spent time with vulnerable addicts in recent months and witnessed first-hand the dirty, dangerous street corners and back alleys where they would inject their £10 heroin hit, not knowing – or, in many cases, not caring – whether that would be the moment they die.
“Dying would be better than this life,” one man told me.
It was a grim insight into the daily reality of life in the capital of Europe’s drug death crisis.
Scotland has a stubborn addiction to substances spanning generations. Politicians of all persuasions have failed to properly get a grip of the emergency.
But there is a new concept in town.
From Monday, a taxpayer-funded unit is allowing addicts to bring their own heroin and cocaine and inject it while NHS medical teams supervise.
It may be a UK-first but it is a regular feature in some other major European cities that have claimed high success rates in saving lives.
Glasgow has looked on with envy at these other models.
One supermarket car park less than a hundred metres from this new facility is a perfect illustration of the problem. An area littered with dirty needles and paraphernalia. A minefield where one wrong step risks contracting a nasty disease.
It is estimated hundreds of users inject heroin in public places in Glasgow every week. HIV has been rife.
The new building, which will be open from 9am until 9pm 365 days a year, includes bays where clean needles are provided as part of a persuasive tactic to lure addicts indoors in a controlled environment.
There is a welcome area where people will check in before being invited into one of eight bays. The room is clinical, covered in mirrors, with a row of small medical bins.
We were shown the aftercare area where users will relax after their hit in the company of housing and social workers.
The idea is controversial and not cheap – £2.3m has been ring-fenced every year.
Authorities in the city first floated a ‘safer drug consumption room’ in 2016. It failed to get off the ground as the UK Home Office under the Conservatives said they would not allow people to break the law to feed habits.
The usual wrangle between Edinburgh and London continued for years with Downing Street suggesting Scotland could, if it wanted, use its discretion to allow these injecting rooms to go ahead.
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The stalemate ended when Scotland’s most senior prosecutor issued a landmark decision that it would not be in the public interest to arrest those using such a facility.
One expert has told me this new concept is unlikely to lead to an overall reduction in deaths across Scotland. Another described it as an expensive vanity project. Supporters clearly disagree.
The question is what does success look like?
The big test will be if there is a spike in crime around the building and how it will work alongside law enforcement given drug dealers know exactly where to find their clients now.
It is not disputed this is a radical approach – and other cities across Britain will be watching closely.