ZURICH (Reuters) -UBS should have more clarity on the amount of capital it will need to hold under new Swiss banking regulations currently being drawn up, CEO Sergio Ermotti said on Monday.
Switzerland has pledged to put in place stricter banking rules since the 2023 collapse of Credit Suisse, which was then taken over by UBS. At the centre of the overhaul are plans to make UBS hold more capital to prevent a repeat of the crisis.
UBS shares fell sharply last week after Ermotti warned about the negative impact of new capital rules and the bank said its buyback plans hinged on no major changes to them.
“We will not get much clarity until May,” Ermotti said of the new regulations, speaking at the UBS Financial Services Conference in Miami, and noting May was when Swiss authorities were likely to launch a consultation on the new proposals.
“Having said that, this is going to still take months to then become eventually a formal proposal. So, I would say between May and … the end of the summer probably and the start of autumn, you know, we’re going to find out much more.”
While UBS was making good progress in delivering on its strategic objectives, Ermotti said that tariffs could cloud the outlook, in an apparent nod to potential trade measures being put forward by U.S. President Donald Trump.
“The uncertainties that we see from a geopolitical standpoint … around tariffs, is definitely creating a little bit of uncertainties that may dent the capabilities for us, for everybody, to execute on the pipeline,” Ermotti said.
(Reporting by Ariane LuthiEditing by Dave Graham and David Gregorio)
