At a recent Bloomberg event in Zurich, Karin Keller-Sutter, Switzerland's Finance Minister, emphasized that the country's regulatory reforms were focused on building trust in its financial system and cementing its place as a world leader.
"We have to find a balance between competitiveness on the one and the protection of the economy on the other side," Keller-Sutter said. "The government is really committed to having a competitive financial center." The statement came just weeks ahead of the final report of the Swiss Parliament's inquiry into the collapse and rescue of Credit Suisse.
As a part of its reforms, the Swiss government also intends to give new powers to the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (Finma). However, Keller-Sutter stressed that, even with those changes, it is impossible to guarantee that there will never be another crisis. "Business is always risky," she said. “I mean, life is risky.”
It is unclear exactly what powers Finma will be granted. When the government proposed a set of reforms earlier this year, they did not include empowering Finma to levy fines upon banks that commit misconduct. This was despite previously stated support for such a measure from Keller-Sutter.
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