Switzerland looks at cutting size of banks

Switzerland upped the ante in a global regulatory assault on the banking industry on the 18 June 2009 as its central bank warned that Zurich was examining the forced shrinkage of banking groups such as UBS and Credit Suisse to contain the risks posed by their size.

The central bank is looking at imposing constraints on the size of its biggest domestic banks unless global policymakers can come up with a new system to deal with large banks when they fail.

Swiss National Bank: Financial Stability Report, June 2009 http://www.snb.ch/n/mmr/reference/stabrep_2009/source/stabrep_2009.n.pdf

Swiss National Bank: Press Release, 18.6.09: Banks in Switzerland, 2008 edition http://www.snb.ch/en/mmr/reference/quartbul_2009_4_komplett/source/quartbul_2009_4_komplett.en.pdf

Swiss National Bank: Speech, 18.6.09: Philipp Hildebrand: Introductory Remarks, Media News Conference http://www.snb.ch/en/mmr/speeches/id/ref_20090618_pmh/source/ref_20090618_pmh.en.pdf

Website: Swiss National Bank http://www.snb.ch/

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