Skip to main content

UBS, Credit Suisse's Leverage Ratios Not Good Enough For Swiss National Bank

So they're gonna have to work on those.
  • Author:
  • Updated:
    Original:

UBS and Credit Suisse were probably feeling pretty good, having already raised their capital ratios to levels that won’t be required for another four years. That good feeling has been replaced.

For the third consecutive year, the SNB urged banks to raise their leverage ratios, which refers to the amount of capital they must hold against their assets and is a measure of their ability to withstand adverse scenarios including an escalation of the euro-area debt crisis. This time, the lenders may not have a choice….

The Swiss too-big-to-fail leverage ratio requirements will probably increase towards the U.S.-U.K. level, Andreas Venditti, a Zurich-based analyst at Vontobel Holding AG, said in a note Thursday on the report.

UBS, Credit Suisse Should Build Up Crisis Buffers, SNB Says [Bloomberg]

Related

News

Layoffs Watch '12: Deutsche Bank, Barclays, Nomura, Credit Suisse, UBS

Things could be better in Europe. Big investment banks in Europe, including Nomura, Credit Suisse and UBS, are stepping up plans to cut jobs as they seek to adapt to a drastic slowdown in revenues and tighter regulation. Bank executives, headhunters and analysts say that the cuts are shaping up as the deepest since the start of the financial crisis after a disappointing summer dashed hopes of a business revival. One senior headhunter said many large investment banks will have “at least 20 per cent” fewer staff in capital markets and M&A advisory business in Europe by the end of the year compared with late 2011. “It [the market] has never been as bad as this. Bankers have long lost confidence in their banks but now they are also losing their self-confidence, their mojo,” a senior advisory banker said. Among the banks that will reduce their investment banking workforce is Japan’s Nomura, where London-based bankers say that they expect several hundred jobs to be removed in Europe alone as part of a $1bn cost-cutting effort. Switzerland’s largest bank UBS, which cut staff levels earlier than rivals by announcing 2,000 job cuts in the investment bank after a $2.3bn unauthorised trading loss last year, is preparing for intensified cuts as it is seeking to streamline further the unit, several people familiar with the situation said. At Credit Suisse, insiders estimate that the additional SFr1bn ($1bn) in groupwide cuts that were announced in July will translate into up to 1,000 jobs being lost, most of which would be in the investment bank. Analysts expect also Deutsche Bank and Barclays to reduce their headcount further this year. Deutsche said two months ago it would reduce staff levels by 1,900. Investment Banks Eye Europe Job Cuts [FT]

Getty Images
Banks

Not Being Able To Swiss Bank Anymore A Real Drag On Big Swiss Bank

UBS is having an identity crisis.

News

Swiss National Bank Is On To This "Swiss Banks Are So Great" Scam

News

Credit Suisse And UBS Put Little Pieces Of Themselves In Their Compensation Plans

Banks

It's Called 'Credit Suisse' For A Reason

Photo: Getty Images.
Banks

What Credit Suisse Lacks In Money Lost On Archegos It Makes Up For In Ominous Requests For Information

The Justice Department and Prudential Regulation Authority have some questions.

Banks

Nothing To See Here: Capital Ratios Edition

By Chris Potter (Flickr: 3D Judges Gavel) [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons
Banks

FINRA Is Sorry Credit Suisse Doesn’t Think It Is Favorable Enough To Members

Sorry NOT sorry.