{"id":28019,"date":"2026-03-09T08:32:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T08:32:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/28019\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T08:32:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T08:32:15","slug":"vontobel-warns-that-switzerland-must-avoid-over-regulation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/28019\/","title":{"rendered":"Vontobel warns that Switzerland must avoid \u2018over-regulation\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Vontobel\"<\/p>\n

Christel Rendu de Lint says the renewed focus on currency and jurisdictional diversification is supporting inflows into Switzerland. <\/p>\n

Keystone \/ Ennio Leanza <\/p>\n

Vontobel has warned that Switzerland must avoid \u201cover-regulation\u201d as the government prepares to unveil sweeping reforms to its too-big-to-fail regime in the wake of Credit Suisse\u2019s collapse.\n<\/p>\n

Listen to the article <\/p>\n

Listening the article <\/p>\n

Toggle language selector <\/p>\n

English (US) <\/p>\n

English (British) <\/p>\n

Generated with artificial intelligence. <\/p>\n

This content was published on <\/p>\n

March 9, 2026 – 08:35\n<\/p>\n

\n Mercedes Ruehl, Financial Times <\/p>\n

Co-chief executive Christel Rendu de Lint, who leads one of Switzerland\u2019s larger listed banks and asset managers with CHF241 billion ($311 billion) in assets under management, said safeguarding the country\u2019s competitiveness was \u201ceveryone\u2019s responsibility\u201d in an interview with the FT. This includes regulators and politicians as well as the corporate sector, she said.<\/p>\n

External Content <\/p>\n

\"FT\"<\/p>\n

Her remarks come as Bern finalises tougher capital and oversight rules under a revamped \u201cToo Big To Fail\u201d regime following Credit Suisse\u2019s collapse in 2023.\u00a0UBS subsequently agreed to buy Credit Suisse in a state-sponsored takeover, leaving Switzerland with only one large systemically important bank.<\/p>\n

\n More<\/p>\n

\"Construction<\/p>\n

More <\/p>\n

What it takes to fuse two Swiss banking giants <\/p>\n

\n

This content was published on <\/p>\n

Mar 30, 2023 <\/p>\n

In a minefield of legal, regulatory and market risks \u2013 how much will it finally cost UBS to buy Credit Suisse? <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Read more: What it takes to fuse two Swiss banking giants
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

The government is expected in April or May to publish a formal report setting out its recommendations after a consultation on requiring UBS to fully capitalise its foreign subsidiaries, potentially increasing its capital needs. Once published, the proposal will move to parliament for debate, opening what could be a lengthy legislative process.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver-regulation is not a good thing,\u201d Rendu de Lint said, though she stopped short of directly criticising the proposed measures, adding she would reserve judgment until \u201cthe ink is dry\u201d. Looser rules are \u201cnot always better\u201d either, she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The debate over the stability of the financial sector goes far beyond technical capital ratios. Switzerland is deciding how much risk the country is willing to tolerate from a global banking champion whose balance sheet dwarfs its domestic economy \u2013 and how to balance that against the benefits UBS brings as a national and international powerhouse.<\/p>\n

Bern is moving to tighten its banking framework even as the US has signalled deregulation under President Donald Trump and the EU and UK have softened or delayed parts of Basel III, the capital standards agreed by a committee of global regulators based in the Swiss city.<\/p>\n

Officials have indicated UBS may need to fully capitalise certain foreign subsidiaries, a move analysts estimate could increase its capital needs by as much as $26 billion. The reform package would also expand the powers of the regulator, FINMA, granting it stronger early intervention tools and broader authority to hold senior executives accountable.<\/p>\n

Unintended consequences<\/p>\n

While Vontobel is not directly targeted by the proposed capital increases aimed at globally systemic banks, Rendu de Lint acknowledged that regulatory shifts inevitably affect the broader ecosystem. \u201cIt needs to be looked at in a global context,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

+ UBS told to tone down lobbying in row with Swiss government<\/a><\/p>\n

Some Swiss lawmakers have similarly warned that unintended consequences from the reform package could ripple through the wider financial sector, particularly at a time when smaller wealth managers and private banks are already under pressure from rising compliance costs and consolidation.<\/p>\n

Rendu de Lint said clients were once again putting currency and geographic diversification \u201cfront page\u201d amid geopolitical tensions, volatility and extreme concentration in US equity markets, where gains have been dominated by a handful of large technology stocks linked to AI.<\/p>\n

Calling the Swiss franc \u201ca reliable safe haven\u201d, she questioned whether investors could still assume the US dollar would rally in a major crisis.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you had a crisis like 2008, would the dollar rally, or would it sell off? Is it going to be a protector \u2013 or are you doubling down on risk?\u201d she said, noting that during a recent bout of market stress \u201cthe dollar sold off\u201d.<\/p>\n

She said the renewed focus on currency and jurisdictional diversification was supporting inflows into Switzerland despite growing competition from financial centres such as Singapore and Dubai.<\/p>\n

Headwinds<\/p>\n

At the same time, she acknowledged that Vontobel \u2013 like much of the active asset management industry \u2013 has faced headwinds in recent years. Institutional flows had been weaker as investors pulled back from active strategies following the sharp rise in interest rates in 2022.<\/p>\n

Vontobel recorded net institutional outflows of about CHF1.6 billion in 2025, reflecting what Rendu de Lint called a \u201clong winter\u201d for active managers, but this was offset by strong private client inflows of roughly CHF5.8 billion, helping lift total assets under management to about CHF241 billion and generating CHF4.2 billion in net new money overall.<\/p>\n

She said 2025 marked the first year of renewed inflows into active fixed income. \u201cThat brutal period is over.\u201d<\/p>\n

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2026<\/p>\n

Articles in this story <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Christel Rendu de Lint says the renewed focus on currency and jurisdictional diversification is supporting inflows into Switzerland.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28020,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[101,2009,312,1455,3314,17],"class_list":["post-28019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-switzerland","tag-article","tag-banking","tag-beat-various","tag-finance-general","tag-production-type-external","tag-switzerland"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116198293120796406","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28019\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}