UBS Urges Weaker Capital Reforms as Swiss Decision Nears
(Bloomberg) — UBS Group AG is still seeking to convince the Swiss government to water down its plans for fresh capital requirements on the lender as a decision on the matter is expected soon.
“We will know in a couple of weeks, or at least in a few weeks” what the capital reforms are likely to look like, Chief Financial Officer Todd Tuckner said at a conference hosted by Morgan Stanley on Tuesday. “In the meantime, we continue to advocate for a better outcome, a more moderate outcome.”
The Swiss government is set to decide in April on how much additional capital it wants UBS to hold, Bloomberg News has reported. A parliament document shows that the executive arm will decide on its proposal for capital backing of the lender’s foreign units, and it’s reportedly also set to determine new rules for the valuation of intangible capital.
The outcome of those decision is arguably the biggest question mark hanging over UBS and its share price. Switzerland’s largest bank recently updated its impact assessment, saying that the plans, if they were to come into force unchanged, would add $22 billion in new capital demands relative to the end of last year.
Swiss officials have concluded that the impact of the new rules will be manageable for UBS, Bloomberg News reported in January. They are preparing a draft law including full capital backing for UBS’s foreign units, though the government is signaling willingness to soften parts of the planned reform dealing with intangible capital such as deferred tax assets and software, people familiar with the matter said at the time
Previous estimates including from the Swiss government put the fresh capital requirements at as much as $26 billion for UBS, though that was relative to a different cut-off date. The differential “shows the significant capital repatriation we were able to achieve over the course of 2025,” Tuckner said on Tuesday.
He also talked about UBS’s private credit exposure, saying the lender is comfortable with it.
(Adds more CFO comment in final paragraph. A previous version corrected the CFO name’s spelling.)
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