Dhe Swiss financial market supervisory authority (Finma) defends itself against accusations that it failed in the case of Credit Suisse (CS): “Finma did everything it could do within the scope of its mandate. There is no fully comprehensive supervision that avoids every accident,” said Finma director Urban Angehrn in the Swiss “Sonntagszeitung”. After the rescue maneuver agreed by the state a week ago with massive support from the state, CS ended up under the umbrella of its rival UBS. The result is a giant with a balance sheet total of CHF 1.5 trillion. Angehrn said that the “intensity of supervision” over UBS would be kept very high. After a transitional period, the combined bank would have to hold more equity.
Critics have been complaining for years that Finma is far too weak in terms of the great importance that the banking sector has in Switzerland and does not have the right tools at its disposal. Angehrn now addressed the weaknesses himself: “We have no authority to issue fines.” In addition, there is no so-called “Senior Managers Regime”. This means that banks would be obliged to clearly assign responsibility for certain decisions to individuals. “After that, there are no more excuses. That could be a sensible regulation,” said Angehrn. So far, the hurdles in punishing individuals have been very high. A professional ban requires direct, individual and causal responsibility for a serious violation of supervisory law.