It would be enough to buy Tesco twice over. Or Barclays, with almost enough change left over to buy Lloyds as well. Even by the standards of the financial markets 50 billion Swiss francs (£45 billion) is a lot of money. And yet, as it turns out, it is not enough to save Credit Suisse.
The Swiss government is searching around increasingly desperately for a way to fix the embattled bank, including this weekend a merger with its traditional rival UBS. But in the end it now looks inevitable that it will have no choice but to take it over and wind it down in the most orderly way possible. Credit Suisse is beyond rescuing.
In reality, it is hard to see that Credit Suisse has any future left
With rumours of its impending collapse swirling through the markets last week, the Swiss National Bank finally decided it had no choice but to step in with a rescue plan, On Wednesday night, it offered the bank a Swf 50 billion lifeline, enough money it hoped to prop it up while it management tried to work out a way of rescuing it.
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