MNI BRIEF: SNB Went To Limit On UBS-CS Deal - Jordan

The Swiss National Bank’s provision of emergency liquidity to prop up UBS’s takeover of Credit Suisse pushed the central bank to its legal limits, president Thomas Jordan said in a speech Friday, as he called for a re-examination of Switzerland's banking regulatory and supervisory regime.

Jordan noted that without the SNB’s willingness to provide further liquidity via ELA+, "a global financial and economic crisis could easily have been set in motion.”

UBS’s takeover of Credit Suisse fundamentally changes the structure of the Swiss banking sector, Jordan said, with greater competition needed to ensure the swift passthrough of SNB monetary policy to the Swiss economy. “We will make sure that this issue, too, is given due consideration in the discussions about the future of the Swiss banking sector,” he said. (MNI INTERVIEW: Swiss Should Explain Why Emergency Plan Ignored)