Aggressive

First question: What will UBS keep? Wealth and asset management are set to stay mostly intact, though with some likely risk reduction and changes in how they are run. Iqbal Khan, UBS’s head of global wealth, has already gone to Asia to sweet-talk the local Credit Suisse teams, which have been shedding senior bankers for months. Risk could be cut because Credit Suisse was more aggressive in lending to rich clients than UBS was. That shows up in higher risk-weighted assets compared with Credit Suisse’s total  assets; It  uses more capital per dollar on its balance sheet.

UBS will also keep the domestic universal bank, Credit Suisse’s most profitable and valuable business. In terms of risk, it looks similar to UBS’s domestic bank. TheSwiss government has said it’s unconcerned about the consolidation’s effect on local competition. That attitude might not last — more than half of the population doesn’t like the tie-up —but for now changes should be minimal.