Credit Suisse in the context of "UBS"

The middle class refers to a class of people in the middle of a social hierarchy, often defined by occupation, income, education, or social status. The term has historically been associated with modernity, capitalism and political debate. Common definitions for the middle class range from the middle fifth of individuals on a nation's income ladder, to everyone but the poorest and wealthiest 20%. Theories like "Paradox of Interest" use decile groups and wealth distribution data to determine the size and wealth share of the middle class.

Terminology differs in the United States, where the term middle class describes people who in other countries would be described as working class. There has been significant global middle-class growth over time. In February 2009, The Economist asserted that over half of the world's population belonged to the middle class, as a result of rapid growth in emerging countries. It characterized the middle class as having a reasonable amount of discretionary income and defined it as beginning at the point where people have roughly a third of their income left for discretionary spending after paying for basic food and shelter.

The French Armed Forces (French: Forces armées françaises, pronounced [fɔʁs aʁme fʁɑ̃sɛːz]) are the military forces of France. They consist of four military branches – the Army, the Navy, the Air and Space Force, and the National Gendarmerie. The National Guard serves as the French Armed Forces' military reserve force. As stipulated by France's constitution, the president of France serves as commander-in-chief of the French military. The Chief of the Defence Staff, currently Général d'armée aérienne Fabien Mandon, serves as the Armed Forces' military head.

France has the ninth largest defense budget in the world and the second largest in the European Union (EU). It also has the largest military by size in the EU. As of 2025, the total active personnel of the French Armed Forces is 264,000. While the reserve personnel is 43,000, for a total of 307,000 personnel (excluding the National Gendarmerie). Including the National Gendarmerie (155,000 in 2024), the total manpower of the French Armed Forces combined is 462,000 strong. A 2015 Credit Suisse report ranked the French Armed Forces as the world's sixth most powerful military.

The First Boston Corporation was a New York–based bulge bracket investment bank, founded in 1932 and acquired by Credit Suisse in 1988. After the acquisition, it operated as an independent investment bank known as CS First Boston until 2006, when the company was fully integrated into Credit Suisse. In 2022, Credit Suisse revived the "First Boston" brand as part of an effort to spin out the business.

Axa Winterthur is a multinational insurance company. The original company named Winterthur was founded in Winterthur, Switzerland, in 1875. From 1997 to June 2006, Winterthur was a Credit Suisse (CS) subsidiary. Paris-based Axa Insurance entered into a definitive agreement to purchase Winterthur group from CS for approximately CHF 12 billion. From 2007 onward, Axa merged the companies. Due to the takeover, Axa Insurance took over the brand name and general supervision of the company. Logo changes started to appear in Barcelona during January 2007.

Winterthur has subsidiaries in Germany, the United Kingdom, Belgium, the Netherlands, Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, the United States, Slovakia, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Luxembourg. In addition, it has subsidiaries in Spain, although Axa are based in Madrid and Winterthur are based in Barcelona.

The University of Chicago Booth School of Business (branded as Chicago Booth) is the graduate business school of the University of Chicago, a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Founded in 1898, Chicago Booth is the second-oldest business school in the U.S. and is associated with 10 Nobel laureates in the Economic Sciences, more than any other business school in the world.

Notable Chicago Booth alumni include James O. McKinsey, founder of McKinsey & Company; Peter G. Peterson, co-founder of Blackstone; Susan Wagner, co-founder of Blackrock; Eric Kriss, co-founder of Bain Capital; Satya Nadella, current CEO of Microsoft; and other current and former CEOs of Fortune 500 companies such as Allstate Insurance, Booz Allen Hamilton, Cargill, Chevron, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Credit Suisse, Dominos, Goldman Sachs, IBM, Morgan Stanley, Morningstar, PIMCO, Reckitt Benckiser, and Starbucks.

On 19 March 2023, Swiss bank UBS Group AG agreed to buy Credit Suisse for CHF 3 billion (US$3.2 billion) in an all-stock deal brokered by the government of Switzerland and the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority. The Swiss National Bank supported the deal by providing more than CHF 100 billion (US$104 billion) in liquidity to UBS following its takeover of Credit Suisse's operations, while the Swiss government provided a guarantee to UBS to cover losses of up to CHF 9 billion (US$9.6 billion) over the short term. Additionally, CHF 16 billion (US$17.2 billion) of Additional Tier 1 bonds were written down to zero.

Credit Suisse is a globally systemically important bank whose investment banking unit, First Boston, had been recently tarnished by a series of high-profile scandals. The banking crisis in the United States had caused fear among global investors and led to panic over other possibly troubled banks. Credit Suisse's share price plunged after the leading shareholder ruled out further investment into the bank due to regulatory issues. The deal was rapidly agreed upon and announced just before the Asian financial markets opened on Monday morning in order to prevent "market shaking" turmoil in the global financial markets. Soon afterward, central banks across the world announced USD liquidity measures to try and ease wider market panic and avoid a wider banking crisis.