ZURICH (Reuters) -Capital necessities set for UBS below new banking laws needs to be “proportionate”, as Switzerland makes an attempt to strike a steadiness between monetary sector competitiveness and defending taxpayers, Finance Minister Karin Keller-Sutter mentioned.
Swiss authorities are weighing up the best way to overhaul banking guidelines in a bid to stop a repeat of the 2023 collapse of Credit score Suisse, which led to its takeover by its outdated rival UBS.
In an interview broadcast on Sunday, Keller-Sutter mentioned UBS was now a really giant financial institution in relation to the scale of the Swiss economic system, making a “special situation”.
“And so the appropriate protective and preventative measures must be taken; that means liquidity, that means equity capital,” she instructed nationwide broadcaster SRF (NS:).
She acknowledged UBS already confronted sure stricter capital necessities, together with below Basel III guidelines efficient from January that not all international locations are implementing identically.
In April, Keller-Sutter mentioned estimates that UBS must maintain one other $15 billion to $25 billion in capital below her authorities’s proposals had been “plausible”.
Requested within the interview whether or not the $25 billion determine was nonetheless legitimate, Keller-Sutter mentioned she couldn’t say. Ultimately, what counted was the entire bundle of measures, she famous.
“This must be looked at in a proportionate, targeted way,” she mentioned, arguing Switzerland should discover a compromise between having a aggressive monetary sector and defending taxpayers.
Addressing an upcoming parliamentary report into how authorities dealt with the Credit score Suisse disaster, Keller-Sutter confused that the principle blame lay with the financial institution’s administration.
Requested concerning the danger of incoming U.S. President Donald Trump imposing hefty commerce tariffs on different international locations, Keller-Sutter mentioned it was too early to take a position.
“But of course if such tariffs did come about, it would be poison for world trade,” she mentioned.
