Bussen, Boni-Stopp und Frühintervention: Finma soll mehr Sanktionsmittel erhalten

The final "too big to fail" package was presented by Karin Keller-Sutter, the Swiss Finance Minister, on Wednesday. The package aims to change the regulation of systemically important banks in Switzerland, making a collapse like the one experienced by Credit Suisse less likely and preventing the government from having to intervene with capital injections again.

The package includes the introduction of a higher capitalization requirement for UBS, which will be debated in the Ständerat during the autumn session. It also includes granting additional competencies to the financial market supervision authority (Finma), changing compensation mechanisms, stabilizing and liquidating plans for systemically important banks, and access to liquidity provided by the Swiss National Bank (SNB).

The Finma and the Swiss National Bank welcomed the new regulatory package, and stated that it is compatible with international standards. UBS stated that it would participate in the review process and support further strengthening of bank regulation. However, the Swiss Bankers Association criticized the package as too extensive and warned against a "Finma as a super-authority," particularly in terms of early intervention, sanctions, and intervention possibilities.

The package aims to expand the powers of financial supervisors and improve their intervention and sanctioning capabilities, in response to criticism of the SNB's delayed and hesitant response during the Credit Suisse crisis. The introduction of a "responsibility regime" is also intended to define and document responsibilities at the highest levels of organizations.