Credit Suisse deal ‘halted crisis’

People walk past the facade of the Swiss National Bank in Zurich (Michael Buholzer/Keystone/AP)

The Swiss central bank has hiked its key interest rate and insisted a government-orchestrated takeover of troubled Credit Suisse by rival bank UBS ended the financial turmoil.

In a statement, the Swiss National Bank (SNB) said it is providing large amounts of support for the deal to merge Switzerland’s biggest banks and that the late Sunday announcement by the federal government, financial regulators and the central bank “put a halt to the crisis”.