Bern, Switzerland (TSR, Fre) - The Swiss Socialist Party is offering Parliament a plan with two options to counter the government’s rescue package for UBS, the country’s largest bank.

The plan would replace the CHF60 billion Cayman Islands ad hoc company designed to liquidate UBS’s “illiquid assets” with a new company that would invest in UBS, effectively turning the federal and cantonal governments into a far larger shareholder of the bank. A second option would be to keep the Federal Council’s plan, announced 16 October, but to ensure that any profits made by the ad hoc company are returned to the government rather than the bank, and that losses are picked up by UBS shareholders rather than the government.

The Socialists also noted that they take issue with the Federal Council’s decision to act without first consulting Parliament, as it may legally do in times of war or other national crisis.

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