Interviews, Videos & GastartikelVeröffentlicht am 14. April 2025

Keller-Sutter comments on Trump’s tariff, the Swiss National Bank and UBS

Bloomberg TV, Craig Stirling and Jan-Henrik Foerster - Swiss President and Finance Minister Karin Keller-Sutter talks about US President Donald Trump’s 31% tariff on Switzerland. Speaking to Bloomberg’s Oliver Crook in Warsaw, she also discusses the independence of the Swiss National Bank and UBS Group AG’s offer of a permanent cap on the size of its investment bank.

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Swiss President on Trump Tariffs, UBS Bank Cap

Video excerpt: Swiss President: UBS Investment Bank Cap Is Up to Them

Trump Made Promise to Swiss Just Hours Before Suspending Tariffs

Donald Trump promised his Swiss counterpart to look again at levies inflicted on her country just hours before he suspended much of his tariff onslaught on the world.

That pledge by the US president was relayed by Karin Keller-Sutter, head of state and finance minister of Switzerland, in an interview with Bloomberg Television that offered insights into the tone and intensity of high-level diplomacy focused on the White House in recent days.

«It was very constructive,» she told Oliver Crook at a gathering of European Union finance ministers in Warsaw on Friday, which she is attending on an ad-hoc capacity. «We both agreed to really find a solution and he promised to look at the situation — and then we would have a dialog again.»

While Keller-Sutter didn’t suggest her call to Washington on Wednesday was the clincher in the president’s decision to declare a 90-day tariff pause amid Treasury-market gyrations, her remarks point to the kind of reasoning Trump has been presented with by peers at the eye of the storm this week.

«Switzerland is a very important direct investor in the US — I mean, overall it’s No. 6 and when it comes down to manufacture, it’s No. 4, and R&D even No. 1 — so I could explain that to the US president, which was very helpful,» she said. «Swiss companies invest a lot and are planning to invest a lot, but they need a signal. I mean, they have to know how secure this investment will be in the next years.»

Trump had imposed levies on Swiss goods of 32%, far more than the 20% in the neighboring EU. Officials in Bern were taken aback, and in the interview Keller-Sutter described the tariff as «huge.»

The Swiss trade surplus with the US surged recently because of its role as a hub in refining gold as shipments to New York spiked in anticipation of tariffs. A paper from the Swiss National Bank this week insisted that bullion should be excluded in analysis of the trade relationship.

Switzerland is seeing fallout from market turmoil in other ways too, with the franc having touched its strongest in a decade against the dollar on Friday. Keller-Sutter said such spikes take place «whenever there is an international crisis.»

«Switzerland is a safe haven,» she said. «We have a strong currency, which on the one hand of course is quite a challenge for our exporting industry. On the other hand, it also shows that we have a stable and very solid economy, and that there is a lot of trust.»

Switzerland found itself in the cross hairs of the first Trump administration, when branded a currency manipulator in 2020 because of the SNB’s interventions to stem gains in the franc. The president isn’t worried about a repeat of that.

«It doesn’t concern me because it’s not true,» she said. «We’re not manipulating anything.»

As for Trump, Keller-Sutter — who is Switzerland’s president under the country’s rotating system of power sharing — hinted that she sees the prospect of an understanding, or perhaps even a deal, in due course.

«I would say we had a very good conversation, very open and constructive,» she said. «We would like to talk about how in fact we can come back to a normal basis of tariffs together. And we both agreed that we have to find a solution.»

«It doesn’t concern me because it’s not true,» she said. «We’re not manipulating anything.»

As for Trump, Keller-Sutter — who is Switzerland’s president under the country’s rotating system of power sharing — hinted that she sees the prospect of an understanding, or perhaps even a deal, in due course.

«I would say we had a very good conversation, very open and constructive,» she said. «We would like to talk about how in fact we can come back to a normal basis of tariffs together. And we both agreed that we have to find a solution.»

UBS Investment Bank Cap Is Up to Them, Keller-Sutter Says

Swiss Finance Minister Karin Keller-Sutter gave a cold shoulder to UBS Group AG’s offer of a permanent cap on the size of its investment bank, suggesting it won’t do much to change her mind on future capital requirements.

Any such move would be a «business decision» by UBS, Keller-Sutter said in a Bloomberg TV interview in Warsaw on Friday, on the sidelines of an EU meeting. «This is not a political decision.»

UBS has privately suggested that a cap on the bank’s investment banking division be written into Swiss law, Bloomberg News has reported. The chief executive officer of the financial watchdog Finma, Stefan Walter, subsequently confirmed the offer and said he welcomes it.

The proposal indicated a way forward from the disagreement between UBS and the Swiss government including Keller-Sutter over the country’s plans to increase the capital demands on its biggest lender by as much as $25 billion.

The authorities’ intention is to increase UBS’s resilience after it agreed to take over Credit Suisse two years ago, making it even bigger. An expanded capital cushion may reduce the risk that UBS will ever face an existential crisis, which could plunge Switzerland into financial chaos.

However, UBS has been campaigning hard against the idea, saying it would reduce its competitiveness and may crimp investor payouts. The lender has been so frustrated it has even examined the potential relocation of its headquarters, Bloomberg News has reported, in a move that would sever a link seen as an important part of its corporate identity.

One argument made by UBS is that the fresh capital requirements, which include higher demands for foreign subsidiaries, wouldn’t address the root causes of the Credit Suisse collapse. It has pinned that largely on management incompetence at the former bank.

Keller-Sutter seemed to respond to those arguments in the interview on Friday.

«We have really learned our lessons from the failure of Credit Suisse and there have been many analyses of the causes of the failure,» she said. «Of course it was mismanagement but it was also a lack of capital, and especially a lack of capital of the subsidiary abroad.»

«This is what we are addressing,» she said.

The Swiss government is due to present a set of proposals in June that will address how much capital UBS should hold, including in its foreign subsidiaries. The matter will then be taken up by the Swiss parliament, with a conclusion unlikely before 2028.

Bundesrätin Karin Keller-Sutter