Swiss Finance Minister Karin Keller-Sutter.
Keystone-SDA
A move abroad by UBS due to stricter capital requirements is unlikely, according to Karin Keller-Sutter.
“We have granted UBS significant concessions under the Capital Adequacy Ordinance,” the Swiss finance minister said in an interview in the Aargauer Zeitung newspaper on Saturday.
“The Federal Council has also opted against any further general tightening of capital ratios, as recommended by experts following the Credit Suisse crisis,” Keller-Sutter continued. “Despite this, UBS described all our proposals as ‘extreme’. It staked everything on an aggressive strategy, presumably assuming it would in any case win out in parliament: after all, that’s always been the case in the past.”
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This time, however, parliamentarians – at least in the Senate – took a different stance. “UBS certainly doesn’t have to leave Switzerland for this reason,” Keller-Sutter told the newspaper. “Many analysts and experts agree the requirements are reasonable and easily manageable for the bank. Leaving Switzerland would be far more costly and legally much more complex. Furthermore, UBS would no longer be a Swiss bank: yet its model is based on Switzerland, on ‘Swissness’, on our rule of law and political stability. When we hear about private banks and the capital inflows registered during the Middle East conflict, this clearly demonstrates the confidence placed in Switzerland as a place of business.”
Keller-Sutter said she has not called or been in contact with UBS CEO Sergio Ermotti since the recent Senate decision. “This isn’t necessary,” she explained. In November, she will meet with the chairman of UBS’s board of directors, Colm Kelleher, as part of a regular exchange with financial centre representatives. “But now is not the time for negotiations: the matter is in parliament,” she said.
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Speculation about a possible relocation of UBS from Switzerland – potentially involving a merger, for instance with US giant Morgan Stanley – caused the share price to rise by 3.5% on the Swiss stock exchange on Friday. There had already been recurring rumours of a possible move of UBS headquarters to the US, and UBS itself has never completely ruled out this possibility.
In September, at the Swiss Bankers Association’s annual meeting in St Gallen, Kelleher said the objective was to remain in Switzerland. “However, if we were to find ourselves in a situation where we are no longer competitive, we would naturally have to give the matter thought,” said Kelleher, himself a former Morgen Stanley CEO.
How we produce news in English
Translated from Italian, reviewed by an English Department journalist.
