Basel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Some of Switzerland’s banks and insurance companies, all multinationals, could well be among those identified by the Basel-based Financial Stability Board as companies that need more regulation because of inherent risks. But the FSB denies Tuesday 1 December, that a Monday report in the Financial Times which lists companies is wrong and that it does not have such a list because such risks are situation-specific and change over time.
Natural catastrophe losses like to be down sharply in 2009
The good news for insurers is that catastrophes are likely to cost them far less in 2009, down by 59 percent compared to 2008.
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.
Basel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Switzerland has been given two seats on the Financial Stability Board (FSB), based in Basel: one for the Swiss National Bank and the other for a representative of the Swiss Federal Department of Finance. The FSB is a regulatory body created 3 April from the advisory group known as the Financial Stability Forum that was set up at the end of the 1990s, and where Switzerland has had only one seat. The new FSB was mandated by the G20 when the group met in London in early April.
Related: Guardian, UK on how the new board will work
