Swiss parliamentary committee backs fee on UBS for public liquidity backstop

ZURICH, Oct 13 (Reuters) — A committee in Switzerland's upper house of parliament on Tuesday backed a government plan to create a public liquidity backstop for systemically important banks that would levy a fee on UBS to access it. The Economic Affairs and Taxation Committee supported charging banks upfront for access to the backstop and said the fee should be limited to systemically important lenders with significant international operations Currently, UBS would be the only bank meeting that criterion, it said The committee also proposed broadening the fee's calculation base to include bail-in debt, collateral pre-positioned at foreign central banks and other long-term funding sources including covered bonds and Pfandbrief notes UBS declined to comment The Swiss Bankers Association (SBA) said it opposed the upfront fee, arguing it would amount to a special tax on UBS (Reporting by Dave Graham and Oliver Hirt. Editing by Mark Potter) ((dave.graham@thomsonreuters.com)