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STORY: $5 trillion in assets and now the world’s largest wealth manager.

UBS has just completed its historic takeover of Credit Suisse in the biggest deal for a bank anywhere since 2008.

The bank’s CEO Sergio Ermotti said in an open letter Monday that:

"This is the start of a new chapter - for UBS, Switzerland as a financial center and the global financial industry.”

It ends almost 170 years of independence for Credit Suisse.

The bank's recent history was marred by scandals and losses.

Those had pushed Switzerland’s no. 2 bank to the brink of collapse, and threatened a wider banking crisis.

UBS agreed in March to buy Credit Suisse for the knockdown price of $3.32 billion in stock and $5.5 billion in assumed losses.

On Friday, UBS struck a $10 billion deal with the Swiss government to backstop those losses.

UBS is now set to book a massive profit however for getting its rival at a fraction of its so-called fair value.

Some of the now 120,000 employees are expected to lose jobs as part of the takeover, which Ermotti has warned will be “bumpy” in the coming months.

While the whole process could take up to five years, it has now created a wealth management behemoth with a balance sheet of $1.6 trillion.