Sergio Ermotti , chief executive at UBS, has said the Swiss government will take competitiveness into account when considering new capital requirements in addition to financial stability, according to Reuters.

At the Point Zero Forum in Zurich, Reuters reported, Ermotti said: "The political process and the parliament will ​focus with cool heads, less ​emotions around what needs to be ⁠done to achieve financial stability, but ​also competitiveness."

"Without competitiveness, we will not maintain Switzerland as a global and ​vibrant financial centre in the world," he added.

UBS has been at the centre of an ongoing debate about Swiss capital reforms since the collapse of Credit Suisse and UBS’s acquisition of the bank, which has recently entered its final phase.

The Swiss government is pushing ahead with legislation that would force UBS to fully capitalise its foreign subsidiaries, particularly those in the US, to prevent a crisis such as Credit Suisse’s collapse from happening again.

UBS has argued such changes would be “extreme,” claiming they would force it to raise its capital by up to $26 billion and would negatively impact its competitiveness.

In March, the Financial Times reported that Swiss MPs had privately warned UBS to scale back its lobbying efforts, with a source telling the paper that comments from the firm “and particularly statements by Ermotti” could backfire and harden the government’s position.

The same month, lawmakers told Reuters the government would water down the legislation before it was passed.

Swiss paper Neue Zuercher Zeitung reported that would extend Ermotti’s tenure beyond his planned resignation in April 2027, which was set to coincide with all Credit Suisse assets had been integrated into UBS.

Following his remarks on the regulatory changes, Ermotti also predicted that AI will have a transformative impact on the banking workforce.

"Let's be honest - some ​of the ​jobs ⁠that we have in banking and finance will probably disappear, ​or you're going to need ​less ⁠people to do the same job," he said.

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