By Noele Illien and John Revill
BERN (Reuters) -A Swiss parliamentary investigation into the role played by state institutions in the collapse and emergency rescue of Credit Suisse will take 12 to 15 months to complete, its president said on Thursday.
UBS agreed to buy Credit Suisse for 3 billion Swiss francs ($3.48 billion) in March after panicked customers withdrew cash from their accounts at the stricken lender.
The collapse has proved controversial, with Swiss political parties raising concerns about the huge amount of state aid involved, potential job losses as well as the size of the newly enlarged UBS, already Switzerland’s biggest bank.
The investigation is only the fifth of its kind in the country’s modern history and the committee of lawmakers conducting it has sweeping powers to call on the Swiss cabinet, finance ministry and other state bodies.
The parliamentary commission will investigate the “legality, expediency and effectiveness of the conduct by the competent authorities and bodies in the context of the Credit Suisse crisis and report to the Swiss parliament,” it said in a statement.
After an initial meeting on June 16, the committee held its first regular meeting in Bern on Thursday.
It decided to operate under a duty of strict confidentiality for committee members and people called for questioning, citing the secrecy of information to be disclosed.
The investigation, which is being led by 14 lawmakers from the country’s upper and lower houses, will examine how the Swiss government and the finance ministry, acted in the run up to the crash.
It will also scrutinise the role played by financial regulator FINMA as well as the Swiss National Bank.
Commission president Isabelle Chassot, a lawmaker from Die Mitte party, told a briefing in Bern she expected the commission to last 12 to 15 months.
Chassot said the commission could invite anyone to its hearings, but declined to give specifics.
There has been debate in Switzerland whether Credit Suisse bankers, who are not the subject of the inquiry, will be grilled by lawmakers.
“I cannot say who will be invited, but bankers could be invited,” Chassot told Reuters. “It depends on the status of the invited person whether they have to come or not.
“If they are a witness, they must attend, if they are here to give information, they can refuse to testify,” she said.
The committee was not a judicial authority she said, but a political enquiry which will compile its findings in a report.
“It will point out shortcomings, if there are any,” Chassot said, adding it would make recommendations to relevant authorities.
($1 = 0.8627 Swiss francs)
(Reporting by Noele Illien in Bern and John Revill in Zurich; editing by David Evans, Alexandra Hudson and Jane Merriman)
