‘Switzerland has spoken’: will UBS leave? (opens the source in a new tab)
- Three and a half years after its state-orchestrated rescue of Credit Suisse, UBS faces a Swiss proposal, backed last month by parliament’s upper house, to hold an extra $16bn of capital; the lower house still has to vote.
- Its options: stay and pay (analysts put the real shortfall at $6bn–8bn), split off the international arm, sell or shrink the US business, merge with a foreign bank, or leave Switzerland, which Morgan Stanley says could bring an exit tax of up to $10bn.
- Top-10 shareholder Artisan Partners has urged a move; finance minister Karin Keller-Sutter says leaving would be ‘much more expensive and legally very complex’. A senior UBS employee says staying and adapting is most likely.
- $16bn
- extra capital
- 90%
- foreign units, from ~60%
- $10bn
- possible exit tax
Why it matters After Credit Suisse, Switzerland is choosing safety over its biggest bank’s growth, and banks and investors everywhere are watching.
Other side Is this overcaution that could push a national champion abroad, or a fair price for a bank whose balance sheet is bigger than the Swiss economy? Rivals, for their part, welcome a competitor forced to hold more capital.