Switzerland to Draft Capital Requirements for UBS, Credit Suisse

ZURICH--Switzerland will draft measures outlining "more stringent capital requirements" for UBS AG (UBSN.EB) and Credit Suisse (CS), as the government seeks to ensure the country's banks don't become too big to fail, the Swiss government said on Wednesday.

In a statement, the Federal Council, the country's cabinet, said it had asked the finance department to draft amendments to existing bank law that create tougher capital measures by the end of the year. The cabinet didn't specify what the capital requirements would be.

Like other countries that bailed out big banks during the financial crisis, Switzerland wants to prevent any financial institution from becoming "too big to fail." Switzerland rescued UBS, the country's biggest bank, in 2008 after the U.S. mortgage meltdown resulted in roughly $50 billion in losses. At one point, the government owned about 9% of the Zurich-based bank.

"Additional measures and adjustments are required to boost the resilience of systemically important banks further and to make their restructuring or orderly resolution possible without taxpayers incurring any costs," the cabinet said in its statement. "One of the recommendations is thus to increase the capital requirements."

The amendments are to be made in consultation with the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority, the market regulator commonly known as Finma, and the Swiss National Bank. The banks will also be consulted.

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