Swiss banking giant UBS is preparing to cut 35,000 jobs in the coming months following its takeover of former rival bank Credit Suisse, Bloomberg news agency reported Tuesday.

This figure represents the majority of Credit Suisse’s 45,000 employees.

When contacted by AFP for comment on the report, UBS said it did not wish to comment at this time.

On March 19, UBS agreed to buy Credit Suisse, under pressure from the authorities, for 3 billion Swiss francs (equivalent in euros). A solvency crisis, following a series of scandals and severe criticism of risk management, had pushed Credit Suisse to the brink of bankruptcy.

At the end of 2022, the two giants of the Swiss banking sector counted around 120,000 employees and partners internationally, 37,000 in Switzerland itself.

According to Bloomberg, which cited two sources familiar with the matter, UBS management intends to reduce the total staff of the new group by about 30%, in other words by about 35,000 people.

The agency added, citing the same sources, that workers have been told to expect three waves of job cuts this year, with the first expected in late July and the other two in September and October.

Employees of investment bank Credit Suisse in London, New York and its branches in Asia are expected to be the most affected.

That UBS’s takeover of Credit Suisse would lead to layoffs and job cuts had already been discounted by analysts. Jobs were to be “the most difficult aspect” of the merger, UBS chief executive Sergio Ermotti recently warned during the Swiss Economic Forum. In his view the job cuts were inevitable as some of the two banks’ activities overlap.