How Swissair saved UBS

Were the experiences from the grounding of Swissair in 2001 and the personnel connections in both cases what saved UBS from ruin during the major crisis of 2008? This core question is the starting point for the author Bernhard Weissberg. He compares the cases of Swissair and UBS and explains why the second rescue succeeded in the context of the financial crisis. Peter Kurer, as a lawyer and General Counsel of UBS, was involved in the Swissair debacle in 2001. Seven years later – as Chairman of the Board of UBS – he played a crucial role in the bank's turnaround. Peter Siegenthaler also played an important role in both cases as the head of the Federal Finance Administration. He and other key figures such as former National Bank President Philipp Hildebrand, Daniel Zuberbühler, Director of the Federal Banking Commission, journalist René Lüchinger, and former Federal Councilor Kaspar Villiger provided extensive interviews. From this, a compelling and nuanced portrait of the two largest Swiss economic and PR crises since the turn of the millennium has emerged.