Credit Suisse exits NC jobs deal as new owner UBS seeks cost savings
North Carolina officials canceled an incentive package Tuesday for Credit Suisse after the company said it didn’t expect to meet its hiring requirements of adding 1,200 jobs to its Research Triangle Park facility.
Credit Suisse, one of the Triangle’s largest private employers, was acquired in an emergency takeover last June by fellow Swiss Bank, UBS. The move was orchestrated by Swiss officials amid fears Credit Suisse could collapse and spark a broader financial crisis.
“UBS is committed to remaining in North Carolina and intends to retain a significant presence in North Carolina,” Heather Kutter Gallagher, Credit Suisse’s U.S. chief operating officer, wrote in a Jan. 30 letter to North Carolina Commerce Secretary Machelle Baker Sanders.
At the end of 2023, Credit Suisse employed 1,753 full-time workers at its RTP facilities, Gallagher said. This is down from roughly 2,300 local employees in 2022, state records show.
North Carolina has awarded Credit Suisse three job development investment grants, or JDIGs, over the years.
Tuesday’s action was connected with a 2017 agreement — Credit Suisse’s largest North Carolina grant so far. Then, the company promised 1,200 jobs and a $100 million investment at its Morrisville campus.
The company created 883 jobs under this agreement and received a little more than $3 million from North Carolina before it was canceled this week, according to state records.
UBS has shared a desire for “cost synergies” as it integrates Credit Suisse. On a Feb. 7 investors call, the bank said it planned to achieve $13 billion in overall “gross cost saves” by the end of 2026.
“We expect that roughly half will be personnel-related costs as we streamline our front office operations across businesses and deliver synergies in our support and control functions,” UBS global chief financial officer Todd Tuckner said.
Status of Credit Suisse campus
Credit Suisse built a new Research Triangle Park office in 2019 to accommodate its then growing workforce, part of the company’s $109 million investment in Wake County. This site will remain open, Gallagher told Sanders, writing “under current plans, UBS intends to retain and utilize the new building constructed in RTP.”
In 2004, North Carolina gave the company (then called Credit Suisse First Boston) a grant to bring 400 jobs to RTP. Two years later, the state authorized a second incentive deal for the bank to create hundreds more positions in the Triangle.
Around half of the company’s local workforce were technologists, with other roles, including finance and corporate.
Prior to its merger with UBS, Credit Suisse had experienced a string of scandals, including facing heavy fines for enabling clients to evade taxes. Known for its wealthy, international clientele, the bank was reporting heavy losses even before the March 2023 fall of Silicon Valley Bank precipitated a bank run on Credit Suisse deposits.
“Credit Suisse’s capital efficiency and profitability were compromised in recent years by capital intensive exposures, underpriced resources and products, and hurdle rates that were not aligned to underlying risks,” UBS CEO Sergio Ermotti told investors on Feb. 7.
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