Philipp Hildebrand, SNB
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The incoming head of the Swiss National Bank, Philipp Hildebrand, says Switzerland needs tighter banking regulations than most countries, due to its size relative to the country’s economy. Total banking assets exceed seven times Switzerland’s GDP, he notes, and they are very concentrated, with the two big banks, Credit Suisse and UBS, having two-thirds of the total.
Recovery may be underway but the costs to the global economy, longer term, loom large. “The potential costs of the support measures taken – capital injection, asset purchases, and guarantees of bank debt – in the G7 countries together with Australia, the Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland amount to about 20 percent of GDP in these economies,” he says, although actual outlays have been about 8 percent.
Hildebrand, who takes over as SNB chairman in January 2010 when Jean-Pierre Roth retires, made his remarks in a speech Wednesday evening 18 November at the University of Geneva.
The SNB is focusing on two areas of bank regulation changes, in line with recommendations drawn up by the Financial Stability Board (FSB) The FSB was created in April 2009 and is housed at the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland.
Tower Office, head of the BIS in Basel, Switzerland
Basel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Central bank heads from 27 leading countries meeting in Basel agreed Sunday to follow recommendations made Saturday 5 September by finance officials, who met in London, to impose tougher capital requirements on banks. The new measures are designed to avoid a repeat of the collapse of much of the global banking system at the end of 2008.
Basel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Már Guðmundsson Thursday 20 August became the new governor of Iceland’s central bank, post he takes up after five years in Basel as deputy head of the monetary and economic department of the Bank for International Settlements. Iceland’s economy “hit the wall” according to Forbes in February 2009, with high unemployment and riots in the streets; getting the economy back on its feet is widely seen by international economic observers as a daunting challenge.
Related: Ice News, 20 August 2009
Bank for International Settlements, Basel: Botta tower
Basel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The Basel Committee for Banking Supervision, together with the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) in Basel, Switzerland, its home, make up the relatively quiet, staid face of international banking, but data and other news coming out of their offices in the western Swiss city lately are creating more ripples than usual in financial circles.
Two weeks ago, 13 July, the Committee published its new Basel II rules, used by banks to calculate the capital they must set aside to offset risk.
