The Federal Reserve bank on April 14 hurried shamelessly to approve the takeover of Credit Suisse Bank’s banking operations in the United States by UBS, turning UBS into what is possibly the world’s largest bank, with more than $4 trillion in assets, as Reuters reported. UBS had requested the Fed’s approval on March 22, so three weeks was sufficient for the U.S. central bank to perform what is supposed by law to be “heightened supervision.” In fact, it has performed no supervision at all, since Reuters also reported that UBS will not be submitting its plan for the merger of its own and CS assets in the United States, for roughly another two and one-half months.
UBS has roughly 1,000 branches and offices of various kinds in the United States, and claims more than $1 trillion in assets there. As for Credit Suisse, it has been known in the United States primarily for its hedge fund and derivatives operations and exposures.