With just one major bank, companies fear that prices will rise. Foreign banks are already ready.
Having only one major bank in the country is bad news for the industry, says Benjamin Giezendanner, Managing Director of Giezendanner Transport. He is also President of the Aargau Trade Association, in which he represents the interests of over 10,000 companies.
If you have no competition and no opportunity to switch to other institutes, you are effectively at your mercy.
Giezendanner sees negative consequences for international companies that rely on big banks for their business. He fears that prices will rise: “If you have no competition and no opportunity to go to other institutes, you are effectively at the mercy of it.”
Then we will not only have higher electricity prices, but soon also higher financing costs.
Martin Hirzel sees it similarly. The president of the machine industry association Swissmem says that the competitive situation between the two banks has benefited Swiss industry. The competition played. If this now disappears, “not only will we have higher electricity prices, but soon also higher financing costs.”
Entrepreneur and SVP national councilor Giezendanner hopes that there will continue to be competition with UBS. He is expecting a competition law investigation and says: “I still hope that a Credit Suisse Switzerland, a credit institution, can be singled out so that this market power does not become so great.
Foreign banks are knocking
Export-oriented Swiss companies are now primarily dependent on UBS. But what their services will look like in the future is still uncertain.
If UBS changes its strategy and no longer wants to be so active in this business, Swiss exporters will be forced to work with an international bank.
Martin Hirzel raises concerns: “If UBS changes its strategy and no longer wants to be so active in this business, Swiss exporters will be forced to work with an international bank.”
According to Hirzel, banks from Germany, France and the USA have already sought “a striking amount of contact” with Swiss companies, even with SMEs, in the past few months. It is probably a clear signal to the new Swiss super bank UBS that it wants to keep its Swiss corporate customers.