Swiss parliamentary committee backs fee on UBS for public liquidity backstop

ZURICH, Oct 13 (Reuters) – A committee in Switzerland’s upper house of ‌parliament on Tuesday backed a ‌government plan to create a public liquidity backstop ​for systemically important banks that would levy a fee on UBS to access it.

• The Economic Affairs and ‌Taxation Committee ⁠supported charging banks upfront for access to the backstop and ⁠said the fee should be limited to systemically important lenders with significant ​international operations

• ​Currently, UBS ​would be the ‌only bank meeting that criterion, it said

• The committee also proposed broadening the fee’s calculation base to include bail-in debt, collateral pre-positioned at foreign ‌central banks and other ​long-term funding sources including ​covered bonds ​and Pfandbrief notes

• UBS ‌declined to comment

• The ​Swiss Bankers ​Association (SBA) said it opposed the upfront fee, arguing it would amount ​to a ‌special tax on UBS

(Reporting by Dave ​Graham and Oliver Hirt. Editing ​by Mark Potter)