Swiss government orders temporary suspension of bonuses to Credit Suisse staffers

Switzerland's government said Tuesday that it's ordering Credit Suisse to temporarily suspend bonuses for employees after orchestrating a plan for No. 2 Swiss bank to be taken over by rival UBS. Swiss Department of Finance says federal law allows government to set remuneration-related measures in cases involving Switzerland's biggest banks.

Late last week and into weekend, authorities in Switzerland, backed by central bank and financial regulators, scrambled to cobble toger a $3.25 billion sale of Credit Suisse to UBS. An outflow of deposits and years of trouble raised fears that it could fail and trigger an international financial crisis after collapse of two US banks.

Swiss government says it doesn't plan to block bonus payments from last year that have been granted but are set to be immediately paid because it doesn't want to penalise Credit Suisse employees who did not cause crisis. But authorities in capital, Bern, said y will prohibit payouts of deferred bonuses even though y have alrey been granted with an exception for bonuses that are alrey in process of being paid out.