UBS capital requirements should be proportionate, minister says

ZURICH (Reuters) -Capital requirements set for UBS under new banking regulations should be “proportionate”, as Switzerland attempts to strike a balance between financial sector competitiveness and protecting taxpayers, Finance Minister Karin Keller-Sutter said.

Swiss authorities are weighing up how to overhaul banking rules in a bid to prevent a repeat of the 2023 collapse of Credit Suisse, which led to its takeover by its old rival UBS.

In an interview broadcast on Sunday, Keller-Sutter said UBS was now a very large bank in relation to the size of the Swiss economy, creating a “special situation”.

“And so the appropriate protective and preventative measures must be taken; that means liquidity, that means equity capital,” she told national broadcaster SRF (NS:SRFL).

She acknowledged UBS already faced certain stricter capital requirements, including under Basel III rules effective from January that not all countries are implementing identically.

In April, Keller-Sutter said estimates that UBS would have to hold another $15 billion to $25 billion in capital under her government’s proposals were “plausible”.

Asked in the interview whether the $25 billion figure was still valid, Keller-Sutter said she could not say. In the end, what counted was the whole package of measures, she noted.

“This must be looked at in a proportionate, targeted way,” she said, arguing Switzerland must find a compromise between having a competitive financial sector and protecting taxpayers.

Addressing an upcoming parliamentary report into how authorities handled the Credit Suisse crisis, Keller-Sutter stressed that the main blame lay with the bank’s management.

Asked about the risk of incoming U.S. President Donald Trump imposing hefty trade tariffs on other countries, Keller-Sutter said it was too early to speculate.

“But of course if such tariffs did come about, it would be poison for world trade,” she said.