Bern business law professor ruffles PUK report on CS
Published: Friday, Dec 20th 2024, 16:00
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The report of the parliamentary investigative commission PUK on the CS bailout has been met with harsh criticism: Bern business law professor Peter V. Kunz considers the almost 600-page document to be very uncritical: And "the recommendations are useless and pointless".
The PUK report is not a court case or a legal analysis, but a political attempt to come to terms with the past, said Kunz in an interview with the news agency AWP on Friday: "In my opinion, it achieves little or nothing."
The PUK remained very uncritical, said Kunz: "The authorities came off much better than I had expected."
It is true that the main responsibility for the downfall of the big bank lies with CS management. However, the authorities and government representatives were criticized very little.
For example, former SNB CEO Thomas Jordan and Finance Minister Karin Keller-Sutter said on March 19, 2023 that there was no alternative to a takeover of Credit Suisse by UBS. Today, however, it is clear from the PUK report that there were at least three ready-made solutions, said Kunz.
Almost a clean sweep of the authorities
The task of the PUK was not to come to terms with the CS disaster, but to see whether the authorities bore any responsibility. "The PUK report is almost a whitewash of the authorities along the lines of: it was a difficult time, but in the end it came out well," said the professor from the University of Bern.
The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority Finma had failed utterly by allowing the unruly attitude of CS management to prevail. "This is one of the scandals", said Kunz. Finma should not have put up with this. Even the PUK clearly stated that this was unacceptable. Finma could have been more active.
Kunz qualified this by saying that politicians are keeping FINMA on a tight leash when it comes to personnel and instruments: "Finma is not boxing in the same weight class."
Finma needs more instruments. This is why it is now up to the politicians, said Kunz: "But I doubt whether the politicians will implement this now." The PUK report only calls for the Federal Council to examine whether Finma should be allowed to impose fines.
Overall, these points are unpleasant. "But they don't make the roast fat," said Kunz. "Overall, the SNB did a good job. On the whole, the SNB acted very professionally."
PUK with too little pressure
"The biggest weakness is the 20 recommendations: They are useless and useless," said Kunz. The report does not put enough pressure on politicians. The PUK had wasted a year and a half of time. In his opinion, the PUK could have been dispensed with.
In view of the harmless criticism in the PUK report, no resignations were indicated. Finma received a grade of 5 from the PUK.
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