UBS to buy Credit Suisse in historic deal to contain the spread of the crisis

The plan, negotiated in hastily arranged crisis talks over the weekend, seeks to address a massive rout in Credit Suisse stock and bonds over the past week following the collapse of smaller US lenders

One source previously said 10,000 jobs may have to be cut if the two banks combined. Picture: Gaetan Bally/AP/Keystone

UBS agreed to buy Credit Suisse in a historic, government-brokered deal aimed at containing a crisis of confidence that threatened to spread across global financial markets.

The Swiss bank is paying more than $2bn (€1.8bn) for its rival, according to people with knowledge of the matter. It will be an all share deal and priced at a fraction of Credit Suisse’s price at the close on Friday, when the bank was valued at about 7.4bn francs (€7.4bn).