Implications from regulatory changes on the Swiss banking sector (PDF)

Master's Thesis from the year 2013 in the subject Business economics - Banking, Stock Exchanges, Insurance, Accounting, grade: 5, Prifysgol Cymru University of Wales, course: MBA International Finance, language: English, abstract: Basel III has already had a major impact on the global finance sector.
In this report I have analyzed the impact on the swiss banks, in particular the system relevant banks.

In response to the latest global financial crisis, a number of regulatory policies such as Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and stringent compliance were adopted over the past years but the finance sector called for an international standard, a global regulation. The planned implementation of Basel Accords by January 1, 2019 focuses on much higher capital requirements as well as increased liquidity and funding requirements at the same time. The core goal of Basel III is to make sure that government will never have to bail out banks again as they did in many cases over the past years. This objective of this thesis is to analyze and describe the Basel III framework and focus on its implications on the banking industry, with a focus on the Swiss Banking Sector.
The main challenges ahead for the banking sector due to the extensive regulatory changes are to review the profitability of their business models as intensification of compliance will bring pressure on bank's profit margins. The report will describe how financial institutions will also have to review funding strategies and also deal with the impact of increased capital and liquidity costs. Further will the technical compliance with the new rules and required key ratios be a significant challenge in itself.
This thesis will present the beginning of today's regulatory set of regulations which began in July 1988 known as the Basel I Accord and explain the different intermediate stages until the newest regulatory framework: Basel III. The Basel III Accord will be gradually implemented over a transition period from 2013 - 2018. Further to analyzing the impact of the new Accord on the financial system and Switzerland in particular, this thesis will also review the sufficiency of different key ratios that have to be achieved by the Banks in order to meet the regulators standards and will provide key findings and suggestions for improvement for the body of rules to be more efficient and meaningful.
The latest official financial statements by the Banks suggest that the system-relevant banks are well on the way of not only meeting the required standards but also to find alternatives to maintain current profitability. [...]