Credit Suisse Faced Bankruptcy Without UBS Deal, SNB Says (1)

Credit Suisse Group AG faced imminent failure if it hadn’t been sold to UBS Group AG in an emergency rescue last month, according to the Swiss central bank.

Without the government-brokered takeover, it’s “very, very likely a financial crisis in Switzerland and worldwide would have happened,” Swiss National Bank Vice President Martin Schlegel told broadcaster SRF in an interview that aired Monday. Credit Suisse “would then have been bankrupt.”

The comments highlight the dramatic situation for the Swiss lender before it agreed to the 3 billion-franc ($3.3 billion) deal last month, when global markets were already fragile because of the ...