Economics, Business, Money, Finance : Credit Suisse: Bank rescue damages Switzerland's reputation for stability

Announcing the bank takeover, Swiss President Alain Berset said "an uncontrolled collapse of Credit Suisse would lead to incalculable consequences for the country and the international financial system".

It's hard to avoid the conclusion, some Swiss are now saying, that the very people who should have acted to prevent Credit Suisse's meltdown were asleep at the wheel.

That lack of attention is going to be very costly. UBS's takeover, for the paltry sum of $3bn (£2.5bn), besides being an utter humiliation for Credit Suisse, is likely to leave its shareholders a good bit poorer.

There will also be job losses, perhaps in the thousands. There are Credit Suisse and UBS branches in just about every Swiss town. Once the takeover is complete, there will be little point in UBS keeping them all open.

But perhaps the most costly damage of all could be to Switzerland's reputation as a safe place to invest.

Despite the scandals over the years related to the secret bank accounts of dictators (including Ferdinand Marcos from the Philippines, Congolese dictator Mobutu Sese Seko and many more), or the money laundering for drug lords and tax evaders, Swiss banks hung on to that reputation symbolised by Roger Federer: strong, and reliable.

But now? A system that allows a 167-year-old bank to go belly up, in the space of a few days, at the cost of many jobs and massive losses in share value?

That could cause huge reputational damage. The Swiss banking sector, Switzerland's financial regulators, and its government, all say the takeover is the best solution.

In the end, at the very last minute, it was the only solution. In the coming days, there will be some tough questions to answer.

Stock market once again performing high today…