The Week in Numbers: bank jitters and rate hikes

STORY: From how a rescue deal for Credit Suisse eased global jitters, to a tough call for the Fed, this is the Week in Numbers.

$3.2 billion is how much UBS paid to take over local rival Credit Suisse in a dramatic weekend deal.

Not so long ago, the scandal-prone lender was worth more like $90 billion.

The move helped ease global fears over troubled banks, with stocks recovering some of their losses.

But uncertainty over U.S. policy on banks soon helped build anxiety again.

$19.2 trillion is the amount of money on deposit at U.S. lenders - and banks would like Washington to guarantee every cent of it until the crisis subsides.

But in four appearances this week Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen stopped short of offering a blanket guarantee.

Yellen would only say that she has other tools for safeguarding depositors and stopping contagion.

A quarter of a percentage point was the latest rate hike by U.S. Federal Reserve.

Chairman Jerome Powell said persistent inflation left no choice.

And he said more would have to be done to head off further trouble at U.S. lenders:

“My only interest is that we identify what went wrong here. How did this happen? Is the question. What went wrong? Try to find that.”

A day later, the Bank of England raised its benchmark rate by the same amount.

Up to 22% was the plunge in shares for Jack Dorsey’s payment firm Block on Thursday (March 23).

That after short-seller Hindenburg Research published a report accusing the firm of overstating its user numbers.

Block said the report was factually inaccurate, and vowed to fight back.

And $15.2 billion is how much a Japanese consortium will pay to take over Toshiba.

It’s the third-largest M&A deal of the year globally.

And investors hope it will draw a line under years of scandal at the sprawling conglomerate.