The Federal Department of Finance (FDF), the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) and the Swiss National Bank (SNB) requested UBS Group AG (UBS) and Credit Suisse Group AG (CS) to sign a merger agreement on March 19, 2023. On the same day, FINMA, which replaced the Competition Commission (COMCO) pursuant to Art. 10 para. 3 KG, approved the merger. COMCO prepares a statement for FINMA with its assessment of the merger.

Swiss Economics supported UBS and its legal team in the merger proceedings before FINMA and COMCO. Among other things, Swiss Economics was responsible for data handling, provided economic analysis in all phases of the proceedings and prepared two economic reports for FINMA and COMCO.

Methods

• Data preparation for the parties for submission to the authorities
• Processing of sensitive information under antitrust law in the Clean Team
• Quantitative and qualitative evaluation of the authorities' questionnaires
• Competition economics analyses:
  
  • Market Definition
  • Assessment of the competitive situation
  • "Closeness of Competition" analysis