Switzerland's financial regulator postponed its traditional annual media conference. What prompted it to do so?
The annual media conference of the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (Finma) scheduled for today has been canceled until an unspecified date, the authority confirmed to the daily newspaper «Blick». Nevertheless, Finma published its annual report.
A spokesman justified this by saying «currently strong focus on the work around the merger of UBS and Credit Suisse». The event would have been overshadowed by the forced takeover of Credit Suisse by UBS on March 19, which was initiated in part by Finma which is responsible for the entire financial center.
Authority for Fines Needed
By postponing the conference Finma leadership presumably also escapes a gauntlet. For its role in the rescue of Credit Suisse rescue, the authority took a lot of flak, and in some cases fired back. Last week, the Swiss National Bank (SNB) moved its monetary policy media event from its headquarters to Zurich's Baur au Lac hotel due to a great deal of interest in what it had to say about the takeover.
In a press interview, Finma chair Marlene Amstad said her agency needed authority to hand out fines and impose punitive measures on errant managers. Director Urban Angehrn complained in a separate interview the authority was limited in communicating cases and the hurdles in punishing individuals were very high.
