Credit Suisse CEO rejects European bank mergers as "solution"



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ZURICH (Reuters) – Mergers are not the best way to help European banks manage negative interest rates, said Credit Suisse CEO Tidjane Thiam in an interview published on Sunday.

"This is not the solution," Thiam told the Swiss newspaper Blick am Sonntag. "Negative interest rates have created an extremely difficult environment, with many banks facing long-term pressures. A merger here would not repair anything. "

UBS Last month, German CEO Sergio Ermotti announced that the German banks Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank had canceled the merger talks, which said the consolidation of the European banking sector was inevitable.

However, Thiam said he did not think that one of the two largest Swiss banks, UBS and Credit Suisse, would become acquisition targets. The failure of the merger talks between the two largest German lenders has led to the speculation of agreements with other European banks, including: UBS.

Thiam stated during the interview that he did not criticize the policy of the Swiss National Bank (SNB), which used a negative rate to weaken the Swiss franc.

"I'm just saying that negative rates have a negative effect on the economy," he said.

Thiam, who has been running Credit Suisse since 2015, said his key issues are now resolved and that the bank has made significant progress in reducing costs through technology.

The former minister of his country, Ivory Coast, also ruled out a return to political life, saying that a job change was not feasible and that He foresaw "long-term".

(Report by John Revill, edited by Alexander Smith)

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