Swiss regulators pushed for 5% leverage ratio for TBTF banks

• As per Bloomberg, Swiss regulators will require that country's biggest banks to have capital of 5% of total assets - this will be in line with the rule for U.S. too-big-to-fail lenders, and significantly above the 3% minimum set by Basel.

• UBS and Credit Suisse have argued the Swiss financial system isn't comparable to the U.S. with its far deeper capital markets.

• Leverage ratios have gained favor among regulators as the most effective way to evaluate a bank’s robustness because the method doesn’t involve estimates of risks on their activities.

• Switzerland imposed some the world’s strictest too-big-to-fail requirements in 2011 after the government came to UBS’s rescue during the 2008 financial crisis. UBS and Credit Suisse have assets of 1.83 trillion francs combined, about three times the size of the Swiss gross domestic product, making the two banking behemoths a disproportionately bigger danger to their country’s economy if they fail than their peers elsewhere. Both are compliant with all Swiss capital rules.