The week in Switzerland
Dear Swiss Abroad,
Is Swiss bank UBS not only “too big to fail” but also “too big to stay”? Speculation is rife that it’s going to move to the United States.
This week’s news round-up also includes a parliamentary vote on importing fur, why security measures for embassies in Bern have skyrocketed, and an introduction to some of the new members on the Council of the Swiss Abroad.
Is UBS waving goodbye to Switzerland and moving to the United States? The bank has “no other realistic option but to leave” to protect its competitiveness, reckons one investor.
It’s “not viable” to run a large international bank from Switzerland due to new strict capital proposals, said Europe’s largest activist investor Cevian Capital, which holds about 1.4% of UBS’s shares. “The message from the Federal Council is clear: UBS is too big for Switzerland,” Cevian’s co-founder Lars Förberg told the Financial Times on Thursday. “UBS is the largest wealth manager outside the US, with low risk. Any country would want such a bank.”
The comments come as UBS is attempting to convince Swiss politicians to scale back proposed stricter capital adequacy requirements, which could cost UBS up to CHF26 billion ($33 billion) and which the bank has called extreme and disproportionate. However, on Monday the Senate rejected a motion that sought to delay the introduction of these requirements.
Citing anonymous sources, the New York Post reported last weekend that a UBS delegation led by Chair Colm Kelleher and CEO Sergio Ermotti had recently met Trump administration officials. The discussions were allegedly about a possible transfer of the bank’s headquarters from Zurich to the US, in return for a takeover of or merger with a local institution.
When questioned by the AWP news agency, UBS would neither confirm nor deny the meeting nor its intention to move across the Atlantic. For her part, Finance Minister Karin Keller-Sutter has said it’s not up to the government to determine the location of UBS’s head office, adding that the threat of a departure was “not new”.
The import of and trade in furs produced in a cruel manner should be banned in Switzerland, says the House of Representatives. On Wednesday it clearly backed the corresponding amendments to the Animal Welfare Act.
Parliament is reacting to a popular initiative which is calling for a ban on the import of fur products whose production violates Swiss law. Animal welfare organisations estimate that 350 tonnes of fur – from 1.5 million animals – are imported into Switzerland every year. Many of these furs come from breeding farms in China, where the animals are kept and killed using cruel methods.
While the House of Representatives agreed that such products should no longer be imported into Switzerland, most parliamentarians, together with the government, felt that a popular initiative – amending the constitution – was the wrong approach. Instead, new laws are to be created with an indirect counterproposal: fur imports should be possible only in exceptional cases.
The initiative and counterproposal now go to the Senate. The initiative committee has already announced that it will withdraw the petition if parliament adopts an effective counterproposal.
Security measures for embassies in Bern have shot up over the past ten years. The Swiss capital is feeling the consequences of global political crises, and the police admit the situation is challenging.
In 2015 the Federal Office of Police (Fedpol) recorded 120 “security measures for foreign diplomatic representations”; by 2024 this figure had risen to 580, Blick reported on Monday. Last year alone, the number rose by around a third. Bern, with its dense embassy presence, and Geneva, where numerous international organisations are based, are particularly affected.
“Planning and staff deployment are challenging at times,” the Bern cantonal police told Blick, explaining that the workload for embassy security had steadily increased in recent years and they were “working at full capacity”.
Fedpol doesn’t give details about specific countries or operational measures for security reasons, but “police circles” told Blick that the embassies of Russia and Ukraine as well as those of Israel and Arab states were in the spotlight. Also the US embassy is always heavily protected. “It’s no exaggeration to say that it’s better guarded than the federal parliament,” a police officer told Blick.
The increasing threat situation shows that Switzerland is not immune to the effects of global conflicts despite its neutrality, the Berner Zeitung wrote. “Embassy protection in Bern is becoming a visible mirror of global political tensions.”
Who are the new members on the Council of the Swiss Abroad and what do they want to achieve in their roles as delegates?
The Council, which comprises 120 delegates from Swiss communities abroad and 20 from within Switzerland, began its new term of office at the end of August. Get to know the newly elected members – there are 71 new faces – with our new video series.
“We’re certainly not a real parliament,” said Filippo Lombardi, president of the Organisation of the Swiss Abroad (OSA), as he welcomed the delegates last month. “But the Council of the Swiss Abroad is our organisation’s most representative and most important body.”
The Council is charged with voicing the concerns of the Swiss expatriate community and defending its interests before the authorities and the public. “Our power is limited, as are our resources,” Lombardi admitted. “But our members are essential ambassadors in their countries of residence.”
The week ahead
On Tuesday UBS publishes its Global Real Estate Bubble Index 2025, an analysis of residential property prices in various major cities around the world, including in Switzerland.
The curtain goes up on Thursday for the 21st Zurich Film Festival. Russell Crowe will receive a lifetime achievement award.
Friday will see people raising a glass to the 98th Neuchâtel Grape Harvest Festival (Fête des vendanges). The three-day open-air party is one of the largest wine festivals in Europe.
On Sunday the Swiss go to the polls to vote on two federal issues (and various local ones): the introduction of electronic ID and the abolition of the imputed rental value tax.
Edited by Samuel Jaberg/ac
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