Switzerland

Since UBS absorbed Credit Suisse in 2023, the SNB's big-bank category comprises a single group. Big banks accounted for 35.4% of the aggregate balance sheet of CHF 3,191.3bn at end-2025, down from 41.2% in 2022, as UBS continued to shrink. The remainder is spread across cantonal banks, the Raiffeisen cooperative group of 208 local banks, regional and savings banks, private bankers, stock exchange banks and almost 100 foreign-controlled banks. FINMA's register lists 208 licensed banks and 27 branches of foreign banks, while the Raiffeisen banks operate under the licence of Raiffeisen Schweiz.

Cross-border wealth management and domestic mortgage lending are the two pillars of the system. Assets under management reached a record CHF 9,729bn at end-2025, and UBS alone reported invested assets of US$7.0tn. Mortgages made up 39.6% of total bank assets; domestic mortgage lending rose 3.0% to CHF 1,244.8bn in 2025, with cantonal banks holding 40.4% of the market and the big bank 22.7%. Lending remains conservative, with 94.8% of domestic mortgages in the senior tranche of up to two-thirds of property value.

Funding is dominated by customer deposits, which made up 59.5% of the balance sheet at end-2025. The return to a zero policy rate triggered a shift of CHF 122bn from time into sight deposits in 2025. Aggregate net income reached a record CHF 73.8bn and annual profit rose 16.3% to CHF 20.6bn, helped by commission income; the big bank's share of net income rose to 43.3%. UBS reported 2025 net profit attributable to shareholders of US$7.8bn and a CET1 ratio of 14.4%.

The SNB's July 2026 Financial Stability Report, as summarised by the Swiss Bankers Association, judges the sector well capitalised and liquid, but zero rates are compressing margins at domestically focused banks, whose average outstanding mortgage rate fell from 1.53% to 1.32% in 2025. Vulnerabilities persist in investment property, and links to non-bank lenders and private credit funds are drawing closer supervisory attention. The design of the tougher too-big-to-fail regime for UBS remains the main policy uncertainty.