ZURICH: The popular right-wing Swiss People's Party (SVP) will not support government plans to tighten regulation of the country's biggest banks, a leading figure was quoted as saying, casting doubt on the proposals.
Christoph Blocher, former justice minister and SVP mastermind, said he was concerned that the regulations -- that the government had hoped parliament would approve this year -- could stop Switzerland's banks competing with global rivals.
"If one increases the capital requirements well above foreign competitors you don't only decrease the competitiveness of the financial centre of Switzerland but you also bring the banks higher costs," Blocher told the SonntagsZeitung newspaper
Under the rules proposed late last year, UBS and Credit Suisse should hold an equity Tier 1 capital ratio of at least 10 percent, more than the 7 percent minimum set under new Basel III international rules.
They will need to hold a further 9 percent of other capital, which could be contingent convertible (CoCo) bonds, lifting the total capital ratio to a hefty 19 percent.
UBS Chief Executive Oswald Gruebel has warned in recent weeks that the rules could force Switzerland's biggest bank to move some activities abroad or change its structure.
"We take these concerns of the big banks seriously. We want to know the overall economic effects," Blocher said.
The SVP, expected to remain Switzerland's biggest party in national elections in October, originally supported the rules proposed by a commission in October but Blocher said he did not agree with changes since made by the government.
He said he wanted the proposals to include the obligation for the big banks to split themselves up into independent subsidiaries -- aimed at protecting Swiss operations in case their international operations get into trouble again.
The new rules were proposed to try to reduce the exposure of the Swiss economy to its huge, global banks and prevent a repeat of the government's bailout of UBS in 2008.
Christian Levrat, president of the centre-left Social Democrats, said he feared Blocher's position would only result in the regulation getting nowhere. "Blocher is siding with UBS and against the people," he told the newspaper.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.