Economist Klaus Wellershoff hopes there will be a standard of punishment for bankers

class=”sc-3778e872-0 gWjAEa”>

For the second time since 2008, the Swiss government had to intervene to save a major bank. Both the Swiss National Bank (SNB) and the federal government allocate billions of dollars for this. If the new XXL-UBS suffers a loss, taxpayers will also have to pay nine billion francs.

This raises the question of whether those responsible at CS can be held accountable. After all, they’ve been getting bonuses for years.

“In retrospect, very little is possible with bonuses,” Klaus Wellershoff, 59, former UBS chief economist and banking expert, tells BlickTV. “But there will definitely be a bonus plan in the future. I hope there is a law. Then, if a banker crashes his bank and the federal government has to intervene, you can use his bonuses with a fine.”

Another banking crisis

But finding the culprit is not so easy. “We are in a different banking crisis than in 2008,” says the expert. Defaults were the problem back then.

“The situation has now come to light because national banks kept interest rates too low for too long,” Wellershoff says. Low interest rates could inflate loan volumes and bank balance sheets. Then came inflation. “This is no coincidence, given the low interest rates.”

But Wellershoff doesn’t want to point his finger at the SNB. The inflation rate in this country is relatively low, so the Central Bank raised interest rates too late. “That’s why we haven’t had a banking issue in Switzerland so far – apart from the trust issue in CS.”

But in the US, the problem is clear: According to Wellershoff, the US Federal Reserve is at the center of responsibility. Interest rate pressure is high in Europe as well: “Some European banks are likely to be shaky.” Because rising interest rates destroy own funds and thus spoil the balance sheets of institutes.

Credit Suisse culture has caused many scandals

In the US, the crisis witnessed the second and third largest bank nationalizations in history. Then, Wellershoff says, attention turned to other possible shaky candidates. “Due to past scandals, Credit Suisse is one of the weaker banks that has already lost a lot of trust,” Wellehrshoff says. Wellershoff sees the reason for this in CS culture as well.

The Economist is not happy with the takeover of CS by UBS. It’s a competitive impossible situation. “There is talk of this being the only mantra-like solution,” he says. Wellershoff sees the situation differently: nationalization would have been possible if the true situation of CS had been known early enough.

“You pretty simply slept there,” Wellershoff explains. Anyone who needs to pay more attention in concrete terms should now be examined in peace. “We’ll see what’s going on with the company and to what extent the SNB has a say. They will also look at the finance department.”

Source :Blick