"Please be informed that due to the continued prevailing market situation affecting the Swiss franc, we have decided to take additional corrective actions"
- UBS
The Swiss biggest bank will charge fees to bank clients, who are holding Swiss franc cash accounts starting from December 21, suggesting clients should keep franc balances as low as possible. UBS decided to impose negative interest rates on institutional clients following a similar move by Credit Suisse, which was done in the previous week. A move by nation's two biggest banks was done in order to meet stricter capital requirements from regulators, and may be considered as an extension of an existing policy announced in August 2011. The SNB has been selling francs for other currencies, mostly euros, since September 2011 in order to avoid the risk of deflation and a recession, when investors rushed to buy Swiss francs, considering it as a safe haven from the Eurozone's debt crisis.
"Please be informed that due to the continued prevailing market situation affecting the Swiss franc, we have decided to take additional corrective actions," said UBS. "As a consequence, we will start applying a charge for credit balances maintained by financial institutions in their Swiss franc cash clearing accounts with UBS in Zurich, effective December 21 2012."
"Investors have tired of the euro crisis and the U.S. fiscal cliff, while low volatility has harmed trading," said Andre Buck, Scoach's Zurich-based head of sales and marketing.
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