CS management should be able to be prosecuted afterwards, says former Finma member Reto Schiltknecht.
Reto Schiltknecht was a member of the financial market authority Finma between 2010 and 2021. He already described the problems at Credit Suisse and possible consequences in specialist articles last fall. Nevertheless, today’s financial market consultant sees no way in which the authorities could have intervened earlier without at most setting an unwanted negative dynamic in motion.
Here you have the situation where a bank manager has failed over the years.
The responsibility for the current situation clearly lies with the CS management, which has failed over the years, Schiltknecht states in the SRF “Daily Talk”: “Here you have to take a closer look at how a line can also be held accountable afterwards .» The management must be able to be prosecuted.
But how could such a responsibility be created, which would then at best bring about a change in behavior in bank management? He doesn’t have quick answers, says Schiltknecht. In other countries such as the USA or Germany, however, this is sometimes practiced more consistently: “You have to consider whether it can also have criminal consequences, as in America, which you then actually implement.”
Argus eyes on Switzerland
As far as the current damage to the reputation of the Swiss financial center is concerned, the ex-Finma expert states: “Switzerland is still in a good position, but it is suffering from the incident. One will have doubts as to whether it can still be considered an anchor of stability in the world.”
In any case, the world is now looking with eagle eyes at Switzerland with its new giant bank with twice the country’s economic output, says Schiltknecht.
Without the White Knight in the form of UBS, one would have had to experiment. One can be grateful to UBS.
At the same time, he assumes that Switzerland is still an anchor in the global financial system: “A convincing solution was presented and international fears were contained. How customers will react in the long term is unpredictable at the moment.”
Best solution on the table?
The merger of CS and UBS is a viable solution under the given circumstances. An environment with great global pressure and a high level of nervousness on the part of governments and authorities does not allow any experiments: “Without the White Knight in the form of UBS, one would have had to experiment. You can be grateful to UBS.”
Based on the initial reactions, Schiltknecht assumes that things will now stabilize. The stock exchanges in Asia have declined slightly, Shanghai remained roughly neutral. Despite all the assurances, Schiltknecht would not subscribe to the fact that after the bank failures in the USA things would calm down there again. “That’s pretty uncertain, I’m not a prophet.”