Swiss government should soften certain UBS rules, second group of lawmakers says

Swiss Lawmakers Urge Government to Ease UBS Capital Requirements

Swiss Government's Capital Regulation Debate

ZURICH (Reuters) -Capital requirements for UBS should not exceed those in other major financial centres, a second Swiss parliamentary committee said on Friday, echoing a call from last week and raising pressure on the government to ease certain rules.

Committee's Recommendations

The plea by the upper chamber's influential economic affairs and taxation committee follows the playbook of its sister body for the lower house, urging the Swiss government not to burden UBS disproportionately with new valuation rules for software and deferred tax assets.

UBS's Position on Capital Exclusion

"Care should be taken not to exceed international standards and common practice in competing financial centers — both in the particulars and as a whole," the committee said in a letter to the government.

Potential Impact on Swiss Banking

Under a plan to make Switzerland's remaining big bank less risky and avoid another Credit Suisse-style meltdown, the government in June laid out plans that could force UBS to hold $26 billion more in core capital - a move the bank has called extreme and damaging.

The committee's intervention focuses on a proposed rule to prohibit including software and deferred tax assets as core capital, a change that the government estimates could increase UBS's capital requirements by about $9 billion.

That is a rule the government can mandate directly without the say of parliament, via so-called ordinance measures, currently set to come into force in 2027.

UBS opposes the exclusion, arguing it would destroy capital without justification, thereby weakening the bank and the Swiss financial industry.

It is unclear whether the government will heed the call to soften rules.

(Reporting by Ariane Luthi, editing by John Revill)