BERN - The Federal Council on Wednesday opened consultation on amendments to the Banking Act and the Liquidity Ordinance. The draft is the piece of the too-big-to-fail overhaul that deals with how banks are run, how they prepare for a crisis, and how the supervisor and the central bank can act. Comments run until 19 November 2026.
The cabinet set the parameters on 6 June 2025, using the work of the parliamentary investigation into Credit Suisse. Capital measures are already on a separate track, including the proposal of 22 April 2026 on full capital backing for stakes in foreign subsidiaries. Wednesday's text is meant to finish the package: a senior-managers regime, remuneration, wider tools for FINMA, recovery and resolution planning for systemically important banks, and broader access to liquidity from the Swiss National Bank.
What the National Bank wants banks to prepare
The SNB welcomed the draft the same day. The Liquidity Ordinance would require systemically important and medium-sized banks to prepare enough collateral to draw central-bank support. In a crisis the SNB can lend against that collateral only if the assets can actually be pledged. The central bank also wants as many banks as possible ready for the Extended Liquidity Facility, which is due from the start of 2027. It backed stronger recovery planning, earlier FINMA intervention, and clearer cooperation between authorities. Smaller banks in categories 4 and 5 are not covered by the collateral-preparation rule.
A consultation, not a statute
Nothing in the draft binds UBS or anyone else this week. It tells the industry the direction before parliament and the ordinance catch up. The rate decision that sits beside this political argument is still the June hold, in our 18 June report. The same cabinet meeting rejected a separate climate initiative for the financial centre, written up alongside this piece.