Swiss parliament meets for a second day over Credit Suisse rescue

By Noele Illien

ZURICH (Reuters) – Swiss lawmakers resumed their debate over the rescue of Credit Suisse on Wednesday, after parliament’s two chambers failed to reach an agreement a day earlier.

The vote to approve the 109 billion Swiss francs ($120.82 billion) the government included as part of a rescue package for the Swiss bank is, however, largely symbolic.

The government had already committed the financial guarantees, using emergency law to largely bypass the legislative body in a move that has angered politicians.

While Switzerland’s upper house earlier on Tuesday approved the rescue, its lower, and larger chamber, later rejected it.

Heated debates held in the country’s four national languages continued into early morning hours, with lawmakers fuelling themselves with raclette, hard boiled eggs left over from Easter and wine.

On Wednesday, the will vote again, tweaking the measures in the hope to find agreement.

Speaking in parliament on Wednesday, finance minister Karin Keller-Sutter said lawmakers needed to consider what sort of a financial centre Switzerland wanted to be and what message their rejection of the rescue would send to the world.

“What signal do you want to give internationally, are the institutions reliable, do you value financial market stability in a place where you already have a financial centre with a certain importance?”

Lawmakers were recalled to the country’s capital, Bern, this week for the rare extraordinary session to discuss the rapid rescue of Credit Suisse and the Swiss government’s open chequebook response to a collapse that many in the country have blamed on top management.

A shotgun marriage which saw Credit Suisse taken over by rival UBS for 3 billion Swiss francs and propped up with more than 250 billion Swiss francs in guarantees and support has been the subject of widespread criticism.

In the lead-up to the merger last month, Swiss emergency law was used so that a sub-group of six members of parliament approved the financial commitment on behalf of the legislative body, to the ire of the almost 250 lawmakers left without a say.

“The use of emergency law has reached a level in the last three years that is beginning to annoy me,” Hansjoerg Knecht, a member of Parliament’s upper house, said on Tuesday.

Speaking ahead of the vote on Tuesday, Keller-Sutter acknowledged the frustration.

“I heard anger, I heard frustration, sometimes I also heard a bit of helplessness,” Karin Keller-Sutter said, adding that the merger between historic cross-town rivals Credit Suisse and UBS was not a forced marriage, but one of convenience.

($1 = 0.9022 Swiss francs)