HONG KONG (Reuters) – UBS Group Chairman Colm Kelleher said on Tuesday that movements from certain regulators to talk about more scrutiny on capital are “misguided”.
“Certainly I think movements from certain regulators at the moment to try and talk about capital are misguided. They should be focusing on other issues,” said Kelleher, who was speaking at the Global Financial Leaders Investment Summit hosted by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, without specifying which regulators he was referring to.
In the U.S., the banking regulator is proposing stricter capital rules on big lenders following smaller bank run incidents earlier this year while the industry is pushing back arguing there is no justification for significant increases in capital.
Kelleher also commented on his bank’s merger with embattled Swiss rival Credit Suisse earlier this year, saying UBS did not want the merger and that major investors pushed back on the deal.
In June, UBS completed its emergency takeover of Credit Suisse, forging a Swiss banking and wealth management giant with a $1.6 trillion balance sheet.
(Reporting by Selena Li; Writing by Kane Wu; Editing by Tom Hogue and Christopher Cushing)
