Swiss parliamentary committee backs motion that may delay some UBS capital rules

ZURICH (Reuters) -A Swiss parliamentary committee on Tuesday passed a motion that could delay some tougher new banking rules proposed for UBS, potentially giving the bank more time to find around $3 billion in added capital.

On June 6, the Swiss government presented a long-awaited plan to tighten the rules in Switzerland after Credit Suisse collapsed in 2023, leading to its takeover by its rival UBS.

The motion narrowly passed by the economic affairs and taxation committee instructs the Swiss government to submit all of its planned banking stability measures to parliament rather than issuing some directly via so-called ordinance measures.

The motion still needs to be adopted by both houses of parliament to become binding.

Among the proposed ordinance measures were stricter provisions for the valuation of assets like software or deferred tax assets, which had been expected for 2027.

They could now be pushed on to the legislative track, where rules are expected to come into force in 2028 at the earliest.

Overall, the government said UBS would need to find up to $26 billion in additional core capital under its raft of measures. It estimated that the ordinance measures in the package could account for around $3 billion of the total.

The demise of Credit Suisse shocked Switzerland and the government pledged to overhaul banking rules in order to ensure there would be no repeat meltdown.

UBS is highly critical of the new banking proposals, arguing they are not proportionate and risk putting the bank at a disadvantage against international competitors.

(Reporting by Ariane LuthiEditing by Dave Graham)