Credit Suisse and UBS have hands out for more capital

This comes from Swiss daily Le Temps (my translation):

Credit Suisse will request the creation of additional conditional capital of 3.98 million at the General Meeting of April 24. The operation is to guarantee to the bank the “strategic flexibility” needed.

Conditional capital has already been used almost exclusively for the issuance of mandatory convertible bonds (mandatory convertible notes) last October, hence the need for this new measure, the second-largest Swiss bank said Tuesday by publishing the proposals to be submitted to shareholders.

Credit Suisse is also proposing to renew the authorized capital by increasing to a maximum of 4 million (nominal value) and extend it until 24 April 2011. The measure will fund potential acquisitions, said the group.

UBS too

UBS did the same last week by asking its shareholders to approve the creation of conditional capital and an authorized capital during its general assembly on April 15. However, the reasons are different and the amounts involved are more substantial because Credit Suisse is moving away from government aid.

The conditional capital of CHF 10 million maximum should serve as collateral for the SNB [Swiss National Bank], which bought illiquid assets from UBS. As for the authorized capital (29.3 million francs maximum), it should give UBS the flexibility to raise any new funds if the bank runs out of equity.

Source
Credit Suisse augmente son capital-actions – Le Temps (French-language)

Related articles
Press release regarding UBS October need for capital – UBS website