UBS set for ‘bumpy’ integration of Credit Suisse

UBS set for ‘bumpy’ integration of Credit Suisse

UBS is poised to complete on Monday its takeover of Credit Suisse, but integrating the former rival is a Herculean task that clients, employees and Swiss political leaders will closely watch.

The coming months are likely to be "bumpy", warned UBS chief Sergio Ermotti on Friday, adding the integration will come with "waves" of difficult decisions, particularly regarding employment.

The country's leading bank UBS was forced into a marriage to prevent its rival from going under, but it hasn't waited for Monday to start preparing to absorb Credit Suisse.

But "from Monday onward, UBS can start to be proactive," Andreas Venditti, a financial analyst for Vontobel, told AFP, if the timetable stands.

UBS has been preparing since mid-March and already has an idea of what it wants to keep, close or sell but "so far they are limited in what they could do" until the merger was sealed, Venditti said.

The merger of Switzerland's two biggest banks will be complex both technically and politically, resulting in a megabank unlike the Swiss have ever seen -- a size that has political leaders worried.

Thousands of jobs could be lost due to duplication.

But according to Thomas Jordan, chairman of the Swiss National Bank, there wasn't another solution.

"Of course,