Sergio Ermotti , chief executive at UBS, has said the Swiss government will take competitiveness into account when considering new capital requirements in addition to financial stability, according to Reuters. <\/p>\n
At the Point Zero Forum in Zurich, Reuters reported, Ermotti said: “The political process and the parliament will \u200bfocus with cool heads, less \u200bemotions around what needs to be \u2060done to achieve financial stability, but \u200balso competitiveness.” <\/p>\n
“Without competitiveness, we will not maintain Switzerland as a global and \u200bvibrant financial centre in the world,” he added. <\/p>\n
UBS has been at the centre of an ongoing debate about Swiss capital reforms since the collapse of Credit Suisse and UBS\u2019s acquisition of the bank<\/a>, which has recently entered its final phase<\/a>. <\/p>\n The Swiss government is pushing ahead with legislation that would force UBS to fully capitalise its foreign subsidiaries, particularly those in the US, to prevent a crisis such as Credit Suisse\u2019s collapse from happening again. <\/p>\n UBS has argued such changes would be \u201cextreme,\u201d claiming they would force it to raise its capital by up to $26 billion and would negatively impact its competitiveness. <\/p>\n In March, the Financial Times reported that Swiss MPs had privately warned UBS to scale back its lobbying efforts<\/a>, with a source telling the paper that comments from the firm \u201cand particularly statements by Ermotti\u201d could backfire and harden the government\u2019s position. <\/p>\n The same month, lawmakers told Reuters the government would water down the legislation before it was passed<\/a>. <\/p>\n