Can UBS make the most of finance’s deal of the century?

“Limited butubsubsubs UBS intensive”. That is how a regulatory filing described, with something approaching wry understatement, the few days of due diligence before announced its deal to rescue Credit Suisse on March 19th. The dramatic acquisition was the first ever tie-up between two “global systemically important banks”, a designation introduced after the financial crisis of 2007-09. Since it was agreed, the pace has barely slowed. In April Sergio Ermotti, a Swiss cost-cutter who ran between 2011 and 2020, returned as the firm’s chief executive. The same month Credit Suisse’s results laid bare the devastating run it had suffered. Combined financial statements followed in May. The fine print of an agreement with Swiss authorities to absorb potential losses emerged in June. Scores of Credit Suisse bankers have rushed for the exit.finally got the keys to the building on June 12th. The tie-up is the most watched deal in finance: it creates a giant with $5trn of invested assets and a balance-sheet twice the size of the Swiss economy. The acquisition’s outcome will say much about the future of global banking. Regulators are eyeing proceedings closely on account of the new institution’s size. Bank bosses, meanwhile, are watching the difficult strategic decisions faced by management for lessons applicable to their own firms. shareholders, who did not vote for the deal, have traded a staid investment for something much riskier.