When Finance Minister Karin Keller-Sutter presented the Federal Council's and regulatory authorities' proposals for adapting banking regulations to the media, the spotlight was largely on capital adequacy - an issue at the heart of UBS.

One of the 28 measures received little attention, namely the introduction of «Finma's authority to impose pecuniary administrative sanctions on legal entities». In other words, the financial market supervisory has the power to impose fines.

Concerns Supervised Legal Entities

The measure «contributes to strengthening supervision» and is «an internationally standard instrument», according to the explanations in the key values paper.

According to the Federal Council's ideas, the new sanction option is to be established for «supervised financial institutions (legal entities).» However, this term has not yet been defined in more detail.

Foreign Countries as a Guideline

At the press conference, Finma President Marlene Amstad emphasized that the question needed to be raised: «How appropriate is it that only the foreign authorities have the authority to impose fines and we do not?»

Amstad left open for the time being the financial amount up to which this authority should extend. The quantification is a question of implementation and design. The means must be «proportionate», but «sufficiently dissuasive».

Still a Long Way to Go

Keller-Sutter agreed with this: The point is to give the Swiss supervisory authority the same tools as its international peers.

Like all plans presented on Friday, this one is also subject to the results of consultations and parliamentary deliberations.