Switzerland’s Financial Regulator Calls for Additional Powers After Credit Suisse Crisis

By Pierre Bertrand

Switzerland’s financial market supervisory body called for stricter standards and additional powers following its post-mortem review of the Credit Suisse crisis.
The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority, or Finma, said it was in favor having more influence on the governance of supervised institutions, including powers to impose fines and publish enforcement proceedings.

It also called for stricter regulation standards with particular regard to so-called “too big to fail” banks.
The move comes nine months after rescue of Credit Suisse by Swiss authorities and peer bank UBS, orchestrated to shore up confidence in the global banking system.
The regulator said that during the crisis, it used the full range of tools available to it to identity the risk of destabilization at Credit Suisse at an early stage. However, this still led to a loss of confidence due to shortcoming in strategy implementation and risk management.
Finma said it took far-reaching and invasive measures to rectify the issues facing Credit Suisse. From 2018 to 2022, it conducted 108 on-site supervisory reviews at Credit Suisse and recorded 382 points which needed attention, 113 of which were classed as high or critical.
The regulator said the figures are proof that it had exhausted its options and legal powers.
Write to Pierre Bertrand at pierre.bertrand@wsj.com