UBS capital rules face long delay as government changes tack on key metric

ZURICH (Reuters) - New banking rules for UBS could face a long delay after Switzerland's finance ministry on Wednesday said it wanted lawmakers to decide on key capital requirements and that a referendum to approve them might be at least three years away.

How much capital the foreign subsidiaries of a systemically important bank must hold will no longer be regulated by government-mandated ordinance, but by federal legislators, the ministry said in a statement.

While the government will publish first guidance on new rules for lenders deemed too big to fail in May, involving parliament could defer a final decision on capital requirements for Switzerland's last big bank by years, the ministry said.

Under a new, provisional timeline, parliament will debate how much capital a bank must hold for its foreign units in 2027 when other banking reform proposals are due to be discussed.

A potential referendum on the new capital rules would not take place before 2028, the ministry said.

A spokesperson for UBS had no immediate comment.

"I think it's right that too-big-to-fail measures like capital requirements, the powers of the financial market authority and a public liquidity backstop are being discussed together, but the timetable is far too slow," lawmaker Celine Widmer from the centre-left Social Democrats told Reuters.

"This entails enormous risk," she said.

The decision to move the capital rules matter to parliament must be confirmed by the governing Federal Council.

Explaining the change, the finance ministry referred to the findings of a parliamentary inquiry into the 2023 collapse of Credit Suisse, which was bought by UBS in an emergency takeover.

"In light of its importance for financial stability and the economy, and considering (the parliamentary) findings, it seems appropriate to regulate this issue at the legislative level and thus present it to parliament," the ministry said.

The remaining capital requirements will continue to be set through ordinance issued by the Federal Council, with an initial proposal put to public consultation at the end of May, it added.

(Reporting by Ariane Luthi and Oliver Hirt; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)