One big Swiss bank is buying a competitor that's in trouble.
一家瑞士大型银行正在收购一家陷入困境的对手银行。
The Swiss bank UBS is the buyer, and it is picking up Credit Suisse.
瑞士银行(瑞银)是买家,它正在收购瑞士信贷(瑞信)。
To some English speakers, that may look on the page like Credit Swiss.
对于一些说英语的人来说,Credit Suisse可能看起来像Credit Swiss。
People following the news have seen and heard that name in recent days.
最近几天,关注新闻的人们看到也听到了这家银行的名字。
The bank was under pressure after other banks failed and investors lost confidence in banking stocks.
其他银行纷纷倒闭、投资者对银行股票失去信心,该行也面临压力。
Now UBS has bought it cheap as part of a government-brokered plan to restore confidence.
如今,作为政府促成的恢复市场信心计划的一部分,瑞银以低价收购了这家银行。
But has it? NPR's Rob Schmitz joins us now from Berlin to talk about this.
事实是这样吗? NPR新闻的罗布·施密茨将从柏林为我们带来相关报道。
Good morning, Rob.
早上好,罗布。
Good morning, Leila.
早上好,蕾拉。
So Switzerland's biggest bank just got bigger by taking over the country's second-biggest bank. What's the significance of this move?
瑞士最大的银行通过收购该国第二大银行而变得更大。这一举措有何意义?
It's a big deal. Last week, Credit Suisse lost around a fifth of its value in a single day.
这是件大事。上周,瑞信的市值在一天内蒸发了约五分之一。
And this was spurred in part by Credit Suisse's mismanagement, but also in part by bank failures in the U.S. that began with Silicon Valley Bank and then spread to other small banks.
这在一定程度上是由瑞信的管理不善造成的,但在一定程度上也是由美国银行接连倒闭引起的,这次倒闭始于硅谷银行,随后蔓延至其他小银行。
Yeah.
是的。
Credit Suisse is not a small bank, but it's been weakened in recent years by scandals, and customers have been withdrawing money for months.
瑞信不是一家小银行,但近年来因丑闻实力削弱,客户接连数月一直在提款。
Switzerland's central bank tried to help last week with a $50 billion injection of capital, but it didn't restore investor confidence.
瑞士央行上周试图注资500亿美元,但未能恢复投资者信心。
So over the weekend, the Swiss government brokered a deal for UBS to take over Credit Suisse.
上周末,瑞士政府促成了瑞银收购瑞信的交易。
The government took the unusual move of bypassing a vote by Credit Suisse shareholders because they were in a rush to do this before markets opened on Monday morning.
瑞士政府采取了绕过瑞信股东投票的不寻常举措,因为他们急于在周一上午市场开盘前促成交易。
At a press conference last night, Karin Keller-Sutter, head of Switzerland's Federal Department of Finance, explained why they were working so fast.
在昨晚的新闻发布会上,瑞士联邦财政部部长卡琳·凯勒-祖特尔解释了他们工作如此迅速的原因。
The bankruptcy of Credit Suisse would have had a collateral damage - a huge collateral damage on the Swiss financial market, also risk of contagion for UBS and other banks, and also internationally.
瑞士信贷的破产会对瑞士金融市场造成巨大的附带损害,这种损害也有可能蔓延到瑞银和其他银行,乃至全球的银行。
The risk of contagion. So the Swiss government was worried about a domino effect that would put other big international banks at risk. How likely is it that the deal will prevent that?
风险蔓延。瑞士政府担心多米诺骨牌效应会将其他大型国际银行置于风险之中。此次交易阻止这种情况发生的可能性有多大?
Yeah. That's a big question. It depends on who you talk to and how pessimistic they are about the health of the overall financial system.
是的。这是个大问题。这取决于你与谁谈,以及他们对整个金融体系健康状况的悲观程度。
The Swiss government emphasizes that this deal is not a bailout, and observers are actually calling this a bail-in, meaning that instead of the government spending massive amounts of taxpayer money to save a bank, they've persuaded another bank to save one of its competitors.
瑞士政府强调这次交易不是紧急援助,观察人士实际上称其为内部纾困,也就是说,瑞士政府没有花费大笔纳税人的钱来拯救一家银行,而是说服了另一家银行来拯救它的对家。
And even though in this case, the Swiss government did agree to contributing $100 billion liquidity line to UBS as part of this deal, for Mark Williams, a professor of finance at Boston University - he says he's somewhat hopeful.
尽管在这种情况下,作为这次交易的一部分,瑞士政府确实同意向瑞银提供1000亿美元的流动性资金,但对波士顿大学金融学教授马克·威廉姆斯而言,还是抱有希望。
In essence, what's happened here, hopefully, is UBS's purchase will put a line in the sand and hopefully quell any other concerns about growing depositor runs.
其实,瑞银的收购有望设置底线、消除人们对储户挤兑增加的担忧。