Switzerland: According to a senior manager at UBS, the newspaper Sonntagszeitung has reported that UBS Group AG will reduce its workforce by 20% to 30% after completing its acquisition of rival Credit Suisse and lay off as many as 36,000 people globally.

Although it did not specify which positions would be at risk, the newspaper noted that 11,000 employees would be let go in Switzerland.

By the end of 2022, the two lenders had a combined workforce of almost 125,000 people, with 30% of those workers located in Switzerland, according to the report.

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In a deal supported by government guarantees and 100 billion Swiss francs (just over $1 billion) in liquidity support from Switzerland's central bank, the two Swiss banks announced a historic merger last month, with UBS agreeing to pay 3 billion Swiss francs ($3.24 billion) in stock to acquire its troubled rival.

The government-mediated agreement was designed to boost public confidence in the Western financial system and prevent a global crisis in the wake of the failure of two regional US banks.

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The banking crisis made Credit Suisse's problems worse because the company was already dealing with a number of scandals, legal problems, and customer exodus.

Furthermore, due to legal and regulatory restrictions, its largest investor, Saudi National Bank, announced in March that it would be unable to offer financial support.

Credit Suisse stated that it would suffer another "substantial" loss in 2023 before turning a profit in 2024, accounting for a net loss of 7.3 billion Swiss francs (nearly $8 billion) in 2022.

By the end of this year, the two largest banks in Switzerland should have merged. Last week, UBS declared that it was bringing back its former CEO Sergio Ermotti "in light of the new challenges and priorities facing UBS after the announcement of the acquisition."

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The bank was "successfully repositioned" after the 2008 global financial crisis, according to a UBS statement, and "achieved a profound culture change within the bank" under Ermotti, who led UBS for nine years, from November 2011 to October 2020.