A number of funds could be facing over $100 million in losses on their Credit Suisse investments after the lender’s forced merger with its rival UBS . The funds face losses on Credit Suisse’s additional tier-1 bonds (AT1), according to CNBC Pro analysis, after Swiss regulators deemed them worthless as part of the emergency merger . The additional tier-1 bonds are a type of debt that is considered part of a bank’s regulatory capital. The debt can be written down to zero in emergency situations, such as when a bank’s capital ratio falls below a specific threshold. The Swiss regulator FINMA saw the merger between Credit Suisse and UBS as a trigger event to write down 16 billion Swiss francs ($17 billion) worth of the bonds. The following table shows the funds that held AT1 bonds with a par amount of at least $100 million each as of Mar. 21, according to Refinitiv’s latest snapshot. The par value is the money an investor receives when the bond matures, in addition to any interest payments. PIMCO’s Income Fund took the biggest hit, as it held bonds with a par value of $243 million (although the total fund is huge, managing around $111 billion in assets). About 80 funds run either directly by PIMCO or one of its affiliates, held Credit Suisse AT 1 bonds, according to CNBC’s analysis. Funds run by First Trust, Vanguard, Invesco, and Principal also made CNBC’s list of top AT1 bondholders with Credit Suisse; they did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment. Pimco, Nuveen, Vontobel, and Fidelity, which also manage funds affected by the writedown, declined to comment. The Swiss regulator’s move to write down the AT1s has angered bondholders as their investments have seemingly been lost, while shareholders will receive payouts as part of the takeover. Usually, equity investments would be written down before AT1 bonds. “We believe this was a policy mistake that may have longer-term consequences for the credibility of the Swiss banking resolution framework, as it introduces significant uncertainty as to the actual hierarchy of Swiss banks’ creditors resolution and restructuring,” warned Silvia Merler, head of ESG and policy research at Algebris Investments, an AT1 bond investor.
