Hundreds of its employees Credit Suisse are resigning each week in a sign of the uncertainty surrounding the financial institution as its takeover by rival UBS progresses, two people with knowledge of the matter said today.

Bankers at Credit Suisse, worried about their futures, are seeking more secure employment at competitors, according to one of the sources.

Both of these faces declined to be named because they are not authorized to make public statements.

THE Swiss newspaper Blick reported earlier today that every day around 150 people around the world quit Credit Suisse and one of the two said they were seeing around 200 resignations a week.

UBS agreed on March 19 to redeem its smaller Swiss rival in a bailout orchestrated by Swiss authorities after market turmoil brought the troubled bank to the brink of collapse.

Credit Suisse reported in April that the bank’s “attrition rate” was “higher than last year” and that it had just over 48,000 full-time workers at the end of last quarter. It had reported having 50,480 full-time employees at the end of 2022.

In an example of Credit Suisse staff being approached by rivals, Santander, Spain’s biggest bank, has hired at least eight bankers from Credit Suisse and is eyeing more, it said this month. Bloomberg News.

UBS is rushing to complete the deal well before the end of this quarter, asking quick approval by regulatory authorities around the world in order to provide greater confidence to Credit Suisse clients and employees. Its chairman Colm Kelleher said last week that this would happen “very soon”.

UBS management has also said it is holding a very high bar when deciding whether or not to keep some of the employees at Credit Suisse’s investment banking unit.

A banker from Credit Suisse in Zurich told Reuters that the bank is in a liquid state, with its investment bank recording the most staff departures. UBS has said it plans to cut Credit Suisse’s investment bank, which employs about 17,000 people, while the Swiss state has pledged 9 billion Swiss francs in guarantees to cover potential losses from the process.

Not a single day goes by without employees receiving farewell email from someone leaving the bank, said one of two people with knowledge of the matter. According to him, at the investment bank, the phones often ring without anyone answering them.

Following an order from the Swiss Ministry of Finance, its high-ranking executives Credit Suisse saw the extraordinary bonus payments they were due to receive for 2022 either canceled or reduced, a decision that contributed to some leaving the bank, the person added.

The merged bank will employ 120,000 workers around the world, although UBS has already said it will cut jobs to cut costs.