LUCERNE, Switzerland (Reuters) -UBS agrees with the vast majority of measures Switzerland's government proposed last month to police its banks, the lender's CEO Sergio Ermotti said on Thursday.
"We would say that we share 80 to 90 per cent of these 22 measures," Ermotti said, speaking at the Swiss Media Forum at the central city of Lucerne.
"There are a few points where we disagree," he added.
Last month the Swiss government pitched 22 measures on how to police banks deemed "too big to fail" (TBTF) in an effort to shield the country from a repeat of the collapse of Credit Suisse, which unravelled in 2023 and was taken over by UBS.
The release of the TBTF plan put pressure UBS's shares, which slid during the following weeks before rallying after the bank reported better-than-expected results earlier this month.
On Thursday, the bank's stock briefly nudged above 28 Swiss francs ($30.63) per share, taking it above the level it stood at before the release of the government's TBTF report.
Among the TBTF measures was a plan to hit UBS, the country's largest lender, with tougher capital requirements.
That, according to the country's finance minister, could require it to put aside an additional $15 billion to $25 billion, which caused alarm among the bank's executives.
"Additional capital is the wrong remedy," UBS Chairman Colm Kelleher said at the bank's annual general meeting in April.
The bank told investors this month that it would be sticking with share buyback plans for 2024, 2025 and 2026.
Still, Ermotti said too big to fail was "accepted".
The government's planned changes to banking rules must still undergo a lengthy political process before they are enshrined in law, and are therefore unlikely to take effect any time soon.
($1 = 0.9142 Swiss francs)
(Reporting by Paul Arnold; editing by David Evans)
By Paul Arnold
