Zurich government fears losses in the event of a UBS move
Keystone-SDA
The departure of UBS bank from Switzerland would have a noticeable impact on the perception and stability of Zurich as a financial centre.
+Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox
There is a lot at stake for the city and canton of Zurich, according to the cantonal government.
“A possible relocation of the UBS headquarters from the Zurich region would potentially cause economic damage to the canton of Zurich, the city of Zurich and other affected municipalities”, Zurich cantonal government said in response to a question in the cantonal council.
+ How a Swiss compromise could save UBS billions
According to the cantonal government, it is not possible to precisely quantify the potential damage. However, the figures quoted from the Zurich Financial Centre 2025/26 study provide some indications.
In 2024, all banks in the canton of Zurich generated gross value added of CHF13 billion. This corresponds to around 8% of the canton’s economic output.
The government does not provide any information on the taxes that UBS pays in the canton of Zurich. However, some of the approximately 18,000 UBS employees who live in the canton of Zurich and also pay taxes would of course also be affected by a move away.
According to the government council’s response, further negative effects would result from indirect consequences. For example, it would make it more difficult for SMEs to access certain financial services. The granting of loans and mortgages could also be affected.
More
More
UBS allegedly considering moving headquarters to the US
Adapted from German by DeepL/mga
We select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools to translate them into English. A journalist then reviews the translation for clarity and accuracy before publication.
Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. The news stories we select have been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team from news agencies such as Bloomberg or Keystone.
If you have any questions about how we work, write to us at english@swissinfo.ch.
