The government has won initial approval from parliament for its plans to bolster capital standards to protect the wider economy from future financial crises.
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swissinfo.ch and agencies
The Senate on Monday agreed a proposal which forces the main banks to build up a total capital ratio of at least 19 per cent – above the minimum set by international regulators.
Supporters, notably from the centre-left but also from other parties, said a repeat of the 2008 UBS bailout must not happen again.
Opponents, however, argued the proposed rules were too strict and would damage the competitive edge of Swiss banks on the global market.
The other parliamentary chamber, the House of Representatives, will discuss the bill at a later stage.
The government hopes the amended law will come into effect next year.
The combined value of assets at the two main banks, UBS and Credit Suisse, is currently 3.8 times higher than Switzerland’s Gross Domestic Product.
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Finance minister hits out at UBS, Credit Suisse
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In an interview published in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung on Saturday, Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf called on the banks to provide a detailed explanation of their response provided to a commission examining the proposed law. She said figures provided by the banks did not reflect “reality”, and were incomprehensible “not only for me.” “In politics, it often…
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But the bill could suffer from political wrangling in this election year, editorialists warn. Finance Minister Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf presented the bill on Wednesday. Among the key measures (see sidebar) are moves requiring the country’s two main banks UBS and Credit Suisse to bolster their capital standards to protect the wider economy from a future…
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Presenting the bill to be submitted to parliament, Finance Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf told journalists that the set of strict crisis measures was necessary because of the vital role of the banking giants UBS and Credit Suisse for the Swiss economy. The government was forced to bail out UBS at the height of the financial crisis…
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The main question for Switzerland’s biggest banks – Credit Suisse and UBS – is how much further will Swiss rules go in comparison to international standards, and how that might affect their ability to compete on a global scale. Credit Suisse intimated last week that it has already reorganised enough to cope with any new…
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