The regulatory questions resulting from Credit Suisse's takeover could be topics for upcoming Swiss elections. For now, things are surprisingly quiet, finews.com finds.

It's almost curious. When the leaders of the four major political parties took part in a recent «Business Day» organized by Economiesuisse, they debated nearly everything - except the banks.

National Councilor and parliamentary group president Thomas Aeschi of the SVP directed a barb on the topic of Credit Suisse at FDP president Thierry Burkart. Die Mitte president Gerhard Pfister and Mattea Meyer, the SP co-party president didn't mention it at all.

Like Omertà

The party representatives preferred arguing on familiar topics of taxes, health costs, energy policy, purchasing power, AHV, immigration, or relations with the EU.

The banking regulation omertà was briefly broken last week by Cédric Wermuth, Meyer's colleague at the top of the SP, in an interview with the «Tages-Anzeiger» (in German, behind paywall). He called for establishing guard rails at UBS over equity and bonuses and spoke of the risks posed to Switzerland by the banking giant.

Keeping an Open Mind

Apart from that, an almost uniform language prevails among politicians, especially conservatives. When asked about the topic, they refer to the Parliamentary Investigation Commission (PUK) and say they don't want to anticipate the results of parliamentary investigations.

They stress keeping an open mind while the commission does its work before drawing conclusions and implementing legislative initiatives.

No Quick Fixes

All major parties are represented in the PUK, and it would be impolitic for party colleagues to intervene with comments, demands, or polemics.

Similar voices are being heard from the Swiss Bankers Association (SBA), which will only take a position once the analysis has been completed. Regulatory and political reactions have to be made with «objectivity and goal orientation,» and individual measures can't be considered in isolation, but in their overall context. That doesn't sound very urgent.

Bankers, such as Julius Baer CEO Philipp Rickenbacher expressed similar sentiments. He said there should be thorough and transparent analysis and no rapid-fire «shoot-from-the-hip» decisions.

Calming Effect

The PUK, seen as the parliament's sharpest sword, is contributing a calming effect during the election campaign. It appears to function as a bad bank for difficult issues. Instead of bad loans, unpopular topics are placed until a solution is found.

It will be a long time before the PUK presents its findings. Last Friday, the commission managed to agree on a roadmap for the course of the investigation.

Not Before March

According to a parliamentary memo, the PUK wants to focus its investigation on four phases. The first covers 2015 to the summer of 2022, starting with the Federal Council's first evaluation report on systemically important banks.

Then there's the period up to mid-March 2023, which includes the desperate attempts by Credit Suisse management to turn the tide with a new major shareholder from Saudi Arabia, a capital increase, and a restructuring plan. Then there are the five days leading up to the takeover on March 19 and, finally, implementation.

The investigations are expected to be completed by the beginning of the spring session in March.

Strict Confidentiality

The PUK's mandate is to investigate the conduct of the relevant authorities over the emergency merger of UBS and Credit Suisse, including its legality, expediency, and effectiveness under strict confidentiality. It's not been disclosed to which representatives of the banks, the government, Finma, and SNB the commission are talking.

This means that the explosive issue of the big banks will remain under wraps for quite some time.