More rigorous banking rules proposed

The president of the Federal Banking Commission has said the country's banks will in the future have to back up their investments with more capital.

“We have for a long time now required an extra buffer from the banks, that goes beyond the minimum requirements,” Eugen Haltiner said in an interview published in the newspaper Sonntag.

“We are now in the process of raising this buffer level even higher for risk-sensitive businesses, in particular investment banking.”

He also called some salaries in the industry “excessive”.

UBS, Switzerland’s biggest financial institution and the world’s largest investment bank, became the European loser in the global credit crisis when it was forced to write down some $37 billion (SFr37.89 billion).

The country’s other leading bank, Credit Suisse Group, took a $10 billion hit.

Asked whether UBS managers would be punished, Haltiner said: “We have not yet finished our investigations. If there are issues of responsibility, they will be addressed.”

The country’s financial watchdog indicated that banks would be forced to disclose compensation schemes, which have been criticised for prompting managers to make costly gambles.

“We want to better understand the pay systems, and whether they influence excess, against the interests of the companies,” he said.