Swiss Government Awards 9.7 Million USD Contract Linked To Credit Suisse Rescue

On Monday, late evening the Swiss government awarded an advisory mandate worth up to 8.7 million Swiss francs (9.70 million USD) to Alvarez & Marsal Switzerland, linked to the rescue of Credit Suisse, according to state procurement platform Simap.ch.

Last month, the Swiss authorities engineered a rescue mission of taking over of struggling Credit Suisse by rival UBS that included over 200 billion francs in financial guarantees.

As part of the merger deal between Switzerland's two largest banks, Bern told UBS it would cover up to 9 billion francs of losses on selling of Credit Suisse assets which are difficult to value. While UBS would cover the first 5 billion francs of losses. A spokesperson for Alvarez & Marsal confirmed the mandate.

"For the contractual implementation of the granting of the guarantee, the Confederation needs advice and support in the short term from an economic point of view," it says on Simap.ch. Since the merger of the banks is to be completed very quickly, the guarantee to cover losses must be prepared immediately, it said.

Ten days ago, the Ministry of Finance granted a contract to Niederer Kraft Frey (NKF) and agreed to pay upto 10.3 million CHF for advisory service on the contractual implementation of the granting of the guarantee.