FirstFT: Credit Suisse gets liquidity offer from Swiss central bank

Good morning.

As markets contend with the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, turmoil in the banking sector has also popped up in Europe. Credit Suisse shares plunged a day after the bank revealed that its auditor had identified “material weaknesses” in its financial reporting controls. We have the details below.

Separately, the exiled Chinese businessman Guo Wengui has been arrested on US fraud charges over an investment scam targeting thousands of his online followers.

Here’s what else to keep tabs on today:

• Wealth Summit Asia: Join the FT for a must-attend, one-day event for market-leading private banks, family offices and wealth managers. Register here.

• Iran-UAE talks Iran’s top security official will travel to the United Arab Emirates for talks in the latest sign of improving relations between the nations.

• ECB rate decision: The European Central Bank has made clear it intends to raise its deposit rate by half a percentage point to 3 per cent.

Today’s top news

1. The Swiss central bank said it would provide a liquidity backstop to Credit Suisse after the lender’s shares cratered as much as 30 per cent, sparking a broader sell-off in European and US bank stocks.

• Alphaville: There’s no contagion between US regional banks and Switzerland’s financial markets, besides bad vibes.

2. US regulators are preparing to respond to collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. The chair of the US Securities and Exchange Commission has called for a strengthening of “the guardrails of finance” in the wake of the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, while the Federal Reserve is weighing tougher rules on capital and liquidity for midsized banks.

3. US prosecutors have charged Chinese businessman Guo Wengui with being a serial fraudster who funded his lavish exile through a string of investment scams. Guo, a critic of the Communist government who fled to New York, was arrested yesterday in connection with an alleged scheme to misappropriate more than $1bn from thousands of his online followers.

4. One of Hong Kong’s most senior finance officials is planning to visit the UK in April in the territory’s first ministerial-level trip to the country in three years and a sign of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s quiet reset of UK-China economic relations.

5. The US defence secretary discussed the downing of a US surveillance drone over the Black Sea with his Russian counterpart in a rare conversation amid escalating tensions over the incident.

The Big Read

Since Bob Iger’s second term as Disney chief executive began in November, one topic has dominated conversations: what to do with Hulu, the popular but complicated streaming service in which Disney owns a majority stake. The debate, which also includes the future of the ESPN sports network, gets to a bigger question: what kind of company should Disney be?

We’re also reading . . . 

Chart of the day

China’s consumer spending returned to growth in the first two months of 2023. Data points to an early sign of a recovery, but the first comprehensive overview of activity since Beijing ended its pandemic restrictions pointed to a mixed economic picture.

Take a break from the news

How does the Boeing 787 Dreamliner compare with the Boeing 747, the double-decker “Queen of the Skies”? As the last of the 747s enters service, Mark Vanhoenacker shares a pilot’s perspective on how flying has evolved.

Additional contributions by Gordon Smith and Tee Zhuo.