Swiss regulator tells UBS to strengthen its crisis plans
Keystone / Ennio Leanza
Select your language
Generated with artificial intelligence.
Listening: Swiss regulator tells UBS to strengthen its crisis plans
UBS must improve its emergency plans following its takeover of Credit Suisse to ensure the bank can be wound down or sold without risking financial stability and taxpayer cash, Swiss regulator FINMA said on Tuesday.
FINMA said it had suspended the annual approval of UBS’s recovery and emergency plans while Switzerland’s last globally systemically important bank develops its approach as it integrates Credit Suisse.
“Based on the experience of the Credit Suisse crisis, additional options for action are required to further strengthen crisis preparations and resolution planning for systemically important banks,” FINMA said in a statement.
UBS said it had already begun work on further developing its existing emergency plans “in a targeted manner”.
“As FINMA confirmed in its press release, UBS meets the current requirements to be resolvable in accordance with the preferred restructuring strategy in the event of a crisis,” the Swiss bank said in a statement.
FINMA said UBS’s emergency plan must ensure the Swiss entity can continue to operate without interruption even if there were a risk of insolvency.
“In its emergency plan, UBS must in particular revise the liquidity planning and the refinancing of the Swiss entity when the emergency plan is activated,” the regulator said.
The Credit Suisse crisis had highlighted problems related to the speed and extent of deposit withdrawals, and there needed to be a stronger focus on measures to generate liquidity, it added.
UBS bought Credit Suisse in an emergency rescue in March 2023 after the latter experienced a liquidity crisis.
The collapse of the country’s second-largest lender prompted deep soul-searching among Swiss financial authorities and promises to make the system more robust.
FINMA has repeatedly called for greater powers to oversee banks, after it was accused of doing too little to prevent the implosion of Credit Suisse.
This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.
If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, if you want to learn more about how we use technology, click here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.
Popular Stories
More
Workplace Switzerland
Trump tariff shock: how Switzerland is positioning itself
Is your place of origin, your Heimatort, important to you?
Every Swiss citizen has a Heimatort, a place of origin, but many have never visited theirs. What’s your relationship with your Heimatort? What does it mean to you?
What factors should be taken into account when inheriting Swiss citizenship abroad?
Should there be a limit to the passing on of Swiss citizenship? Or is the current practice too strict and it should still be possible to register after the age of 25?
‘Pressure will increase on Switzerland to invest more in defence’
This content was published on
Markus Mäder, Switzerland's state secretary for security policy, believes that more cooperation is needed in order to strengthen defence in Europe.
Just one in five Swiss attend a religious service at Easter
This content was published on
Only one in five people in Switzerland attend a religious service during the Easter period or give up meat or alcohol for at least one day of fasting. Around 25% of those polled see Easter primarily as a family holiday, according to the survey.
Major road disruptions continue after heavy snowfall in parts of Switzerland
This content was published on
The snowfall has ended in the southern Swiss canton of Valais, the cantonal emergency services said on Friday. Several roads, however, remain closed.
Swiss businessman gets prison term for asbestos deaths
This content was published on
Stephan Schmidheiny has been sentenced to 9 years and 6 months in prison by the Turin Court of Appeal in a case against the former Eternit executive over deaths linked to asbestos exposure in Italy.
This content was published on
Swiss imports and exports reached new heights in the first quarter, driven by the chemicals and pharmaceuticals sectors. Shipments to the US rose sharply.
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.