Switzerland’s banking regulator has named Stefan Walter, a senior official with the European Central Bank (ECB), as its new chief executive.
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The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) has faced criticism for alleged lapses in oversight that allowed the Credit Suisse crisis to mount until the lender’s near collapse last year, which led to the government-engineered takeover from rival UBS Group.
The Swiss government is now mulling expanded powers for FINMA, including fining banks.
Walter joins FINMA from the ECB, where he played a crucial role in building out its supervision arm since it took on bank oversight in 2014. He spent several years leading the unit responsible for the euro area’s biggest banks, including Deutsche Bank.
In a 2020 shake-up, he took on a wider role leading a unit that carries out tasks related to all banks under the ECB’s supervision, including benchmarking and industry-wide assessments.
Some of Walter’s work last year included ensuring banks are developing their processes and provisioning to capture new types of risks such as those related to the environment or geopolitics.
“Stefan Walter brings a wealth of experience in financial market supervision,” Finma said in a statement on Wednesday.
Walter will take up the new role on April 1. Birgit Rutishauser will remain as the regulator’s interim CEO until then.
Walter, a 59-year-old German national, holds a Master’s degree in International Banking and Finance from Columbia University, the Swiss government said in a separate statement.
Swiss financial regulator wants more power after Credit Suisse collapse
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FINMA would also like to see improvements in capital regulation as part of the “too-big-to-fail” requirements. Stricter standards are needed at the level of the individual institution, writes the supervisory authority in a report on lessons learnedExternal link from the Credit Suisse crisis published on Tuesday. + Who’s to blame for the demise of Credit…
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