Swiss perspectives in 10 languages

UBS mulls moving HQ abroad, according to media report

UBS is exploring options to relocate its headquarters if Switzerland enforces a requirement for the bank to hold an extra $25 billion in capital, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.
UBS is exploring options to relocate its headquarters if Switzerland enforces a requirement for the bank to hold an extra $25 billion in capital, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter. Keystone-SDA

The Swiss bank UBS could relocate its Swiss headquarters abroad if capital demand is not reduced, Bloomberg News reports.

+ Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox

UBS is considering pulling out of Switzerland if Swiss politicians and the authorities stick to their demands, which would trigger an increase in capital of around $25 billion (CHF22 billion), according to the article.

Based on internal calculations, which in the worst-case scenario estimates an increase in the core capital ratio (CET1 ratio) from the current 14% to 20%, UBS management believes that the bank would no longer be able to operate competitively from Switzerland compared to large foreign banks, the news report said.

More

With regard to UBS, Swiss politicians and the supervisory authorities are considering, among other things, the separation and full capitalisation of foreign subsidiaries. In this way, the authorities want to prevent UBS from collapsing, as was the case with Credit Suisse.

However, UBS considers the plans of politicians and authorities to be so detrimental to its business that it sees no other option in such a case than to move its headquarters abroad, people told Bloomberg.

+ Why a monster UBS bank scares Switzerland

It would be economically impossible to operate with such a high capital ratio. In addition, the pressure from shareholders on the bank is also likely to increase in the event of significantly higher capital requirements.

More

Translated from French with DeepL/sb

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

Most Discussed

News

In compliance with the JTI standards

More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative

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.

SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR

SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR