"Too big to fail" dossier

FINMA has a statutory mandate to protect financial market clients and the proper functioning of the financial markets. FINMA has been calling for new and more extensive tools and powers since 2021, along with key improvements in banking regulation, to enable it to fulfil its statutory mandate unequivocally. Many of these demands have been included in the Federal Council’s TBTF report, in the final report of the Parliamentary Investigation Committee on the emergency takeover of CS (PInC report) and in the Federal Council’s recently published parameters paper on the revision of banking legislation.

FINMA evaluates the recovery and resolution plans of the systemically important Swiss financial institutions on a regular basis, and did so once again at the beginning of 2023 for the 2022 reporting period. The Resolution report does not take account of subsequent events, in particular the merger of UBS and Credit Suisse. Overall, the planning work progressed further. The large banks Credit Suisse and UBS further developed their resolvability. Raiffeisen’s emergency plan was deemed ready to implement for the first time, while PostFinance must adopt a new strategy for recapitalisation in the event of an emergency.

FINMA approved for the first time the recovery plans of the systemically important financial market infrastructures SIX x-clear and SIX SIS, subject to certain conditions. Meanwhile the two large Swiss banks Credit Suisse and UBS made further progress towards global resolvability. The emergency plans of the domestic systemically important banks PostFinance, Raiffeisen and Zürcher Kantonalbank are not ready to implement for the time being, as they have not met the capital requirements in full yet.

FINMA noted further progress in its annual assessment of recovery and resolution planning by the systemically important Swiss financial institutions. The domestic systemically important banks (PostFinance, Raiffeisen and Zürcher Kantonalbank) have credible resolution strategies for the first time. The two large banks (Credit Suisse and UBS) have made further improvements to their global resolvability.

FINMA published a comprehensive report on recovery and resolution planning by the systemically important Swiss financial institutions for the first time in 2020.

On its website FINMA provides detailed information about the “too big to fail” regulation in Switzerland, about its role as a resolution authority and the procedures for assessing resolvability, and about investor and client protection in the Swiss financial centre.