Switzerland Said to Impose 5% Leverage Ratio on Big Banks
- Credit Suisse, UBS tried to steer Swiss away from U.S. rules
- Ermotti says approach costly, compares `apples with potatoes'
Switzerland Said to Increase Bank Leverage Ratio
Switzerland’s finance ministry is asking the country’s biggest banks to comply with a too-big-to-fail rule modeled on U.S. standards after rejecting requests from UBS Group AG and Credit Suisse Group AG for easier terms, according to people briefed on the deliberations. The shares fell.
The ministry will demand that lenders have capital equal to about 5 percent of total assets, in line with the U.S. leverage ratio for its biggest banks and above the 3 percent minimum set in a global agreement by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the talks aren’t public. The Swiss government will also align its calculation of the ratio with the method employed in the U.S., resulting in fewer types of debt counting toward capital, one of the people said.