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UBS voluntarily terminated the contract with the federal government and the SNB. This is how the parties and the federal government react – an overview.
Karin Keller-Sutter says: “We’ve really been up late all night (…) because a bank hasn’t taken responsibility for itself, for its employees, for its customers, but also towards Switzerland,” said the finance minister at the media conference Termination of the UBS guarantee agreement. Switzerland got into this situation because “a bank has obviously made wrong decisions for years”.
The FDP says: The FDP wrote in a statement that the federal government’s swift and decisive action had paid off for the taxpayer. “Thanks to the prudent leadership of Federal Councilor Karin Keller-Sutter, the Swiss financial center was able to stabilize and the federal treasury even made a profit.” According to FDP President Thierry Burkart, the Minister of Finance prevented a catastrophe, as he writes on the short message service X (formerly Twitter).
The latest developments also showed “finally the irresponsible political theater of the SVP and the left-green camp during the special session in April,” the FDP further announced. They tried to make political profit from the decline of CS by rejecting the commitment credits.
This is what the GLP says: GLP President Jürg Grossen also criticized the “outrage politics of left and right” on X, which was excessive and short-sighted. Now the new UBS is stabilized and taxpayers will not be burdened. It remains central to draw “the right lessons for the future”.
The SVP says: Group leader Thomas Aeschi defends his party’s rejection of the loan in Parliament. “The quick repayment after less than five months shows that Credit Suisse’s financial situation at the time of the takeover may have been better than it was publicly portrayed,” he told SRF. It is “unfortunate that an overwhelmed Finma and a despondent Federal Council did not ensure that Switzerland would retain two major banks,” he also writes on X.
What the Greens say: UBS’s decision to waive the loss protection raises the question of whether the rescue scenario “was actually as alternative as Finance Minister Keller-Sutter portrayed it”. In addition, there are still “massive financial risks for taxpayers,” writes the party on X. These must be minimized as part of the revision of the “Too Big To Fail” regulation.
The SP says: For co-president Cédric Wermuth, the cancellation of the UBS loss guarantee is good news. “But we have to be aware that there is still a huge risk with this megabank for Swiss taxpayers,” he told SRF. In addition, it remains one of the largest economic subsidies in Swiss history.
That’s what UBS says to its employees
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Caption: View of Zurich’s Paradeplatz between the UBS and Credit Suisse banks. (August 11, 2023) KEYSTONE/Ennio Leanza
The bank describes the repayment of the liquidity support through the CS takeover as a “milestone”. In a statement to employees by Reuters, Chairman of the Board of Directors Colm Kelleher and CEO Sergio Ermotti said: “This underscores the strength of UBS and the competence that employees of both banks have demonstrated in recent months.” However, there is still a lot of work to be done in order to tap the full potential of the transaction.
The middle says: For the party, “the conclusions of the parliamentary commission of inquiry will show where there is a need for action”. It is positive that UBS no longer needs state guarantees. But in the future it should be avoided that Switzerland has to save another bank, writes the center on X.
Middle Councilor Pirmin Bischof describes today’s event as a “gratifying interim result”. “It happened surprisingly early,” he told SRF. But there are still unanswered questions, says Bischof. “The regulatory question remains as to how this new, very large international bank is to be regulated and supervised.”