ZURICH (Reuters) – UBS could be considered too big for Switzerland after its takeover of Credit Suisse, former Swiss Finance Minister Ueli Maurer said on Saturday, with steps needed to reduce the enlarged bank’s risks.

“If you look at just the numbers and compare UBS to the Swiss economy, it’s too big,” Maurer told the Tages-Anzeiger newspaper. “Therefore, the risk must be reduced.”

At around $1.7 trillion, UBS’s balance sheet is twice the size of Switzerland’s annual economic output, giving the bank exceptional weight for a major economy.

If the bank fails, there are no local rivals left to absorb it, while the cost of nationalization could seriously damage public finances, experts have warned.

De-risking was primarily the responsibility of shareholders through the selection of board members, Maurer said.

“They have to be held accountable, not the taxpayers in the end,” said Maurer, who stepped down months before Credit Suisse’s final collapse in March 2023.

“Legislative measures must also be examined,” said Maurer, who also defended himself after a recent parliamentary report raised questions about his actions as the Credit Suisse crisis worsened in late 2022.

Last year, the Swiss government unveiled plans for tighter capital requirements for UBS and Switzerland’s three other big banks in a bid to shore up the financial sector after the demise of Credit Suisse.

Details of the exact capital requirements have yet to emerge, but the possibility that UBS could hold $15 billion to $25 billion in additional capital has met with resistance from the bank.

Maurer said that if capital requirements were too high, Swiss banks would cease to be competitive and might look elsewhere for headquarters.

“For the Swiss economy with its many international multinationals, a large bank is a locational advantage,” he said. “But the risks must be minimized.”

UBS declined to comment for the interview. The bank’s chief executive, Sergio Ermotti, told Migros magazine earlier this month that UBS had enough capital to cover potential problems.

The bank supported many of the Swiss government’s proposals to improve banking regulation, but they needed to be targeted and proportionate, Ermotti told the magazine.

(Reporting by John Revill, Editing by Mark Potter)