Swiss lawmakers agree to ban bonuses at too-big-to-fail banks
The proposal from the centre-left Social Democrats was supported by 101 lawmakers, with 70 against, and now goes to the Senate for approval, in which case it would become law.
Keystone / Peter Klaunzer
The House of Representatives passed a bill on Tuesday to ban systemically relevant banks from paying some bonuses, limiting payouts for top executives and risk managers.
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I legislatori svizzeri concordano nel vietare i bonus alle banche troppo grandi per fallire
The proposal from the Social Democrats was supported by 101 lawmakers, with 70 against, and now goes to the Senate for approval, in which case it would become law.
Switzerland has just weathered a crisis which forced the fusion of its two biggest financial institutions. Credit Suisse Group AG was taken over by UBS Group AG after becoming the first global systemic bank to near collapse since the 2008 market turmoil.
The implicit state guarantee received by large banks means that any risk such institutions take ultimately falls to taxpayers, said Prisca Birrer-Heimo of the Social Democrats, who submitted the proposal.
The government is itself mulling legal options to limit big bank bonuses, so the bill has been “surpassed by recent events,” Finance Minister Karin Keller-Sutter told lawmakers.
Aside from Credit Suisse and UBS, other institutions designated by the Swiss National Bank as systemically important are Raiffeisen Group, Zuercher Kantonalbank and PostFinance. That label means that they are already required to hold higher capital and liquidity buffers and maintain recovery and emergency plans.
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Czech President Petr Pavel and his wife, Eva Pavlova, arrived in Switzerland on Tuesday at the start of a two-day state visit.
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