By Ariane Luthi
BERN (Reuters) -Switzerland’s financial market regulator FINMA said on Tuesday it sees no liquidity bottlenecks so far due to market turmoil sparked by the imposition of U.S. trade tariffs, but that they could happen later.
FINMA CEO Stefan Walter told Reuters that bottlenecks could occur with a time lag and stressed the importance of keeping an eye on so-called non-bank financial institutions, which include hedge funds, private equity funds and credit funds.
The regulator is monitoring events very closely, liaising with partner authorities and supervised institutions, including systemically important banks like UBS, Walter said.
Presenting its latest annual report, FINMA said it carried out 45 on-site reviews of UBS in 2024 as the bank integrates its old rival Credit Suisse, which collapsed in 2023.
Walter refused to specify how much time UBS could be given to fulfil stricter new capital requirements the Swiss government is expected to propose in early June.
He welcomed that UBS’s strategy included limiting the size of its Investment Bank, but said risks could occur in other areas too.
FINMA said it would make greater use of its discretionary powers in future after it identified a number of serious shortcomings in Switzerland’s financial sector in 2024, notably in the areas of money laundering and mortgage lending.
“We want to be even more effective,” Walter said, calling for a clear legal basis for early intervention and powers to more actively communicate and levy fines.
(Reporting by Ariane Luthi; Editing by Miranda Murray and Susan Fenton)
