“We cannot rescue banks ourselves in an emergency”

Vaduz In the event of a crisis, Liechtenstein would not be able to support its banking sector on its own. The question of whether Liechtenstein could save its banks in an emergency should be answered clearly, said Prime Minister Daniel Risch to the Handelsblatt newspaper: “No, we can’t do that ourselves.”

The collapse of Credit Suisse and the emergency merger with UBS has triggered a debate across Europe about banks that are too big to be bailed out by the state. The situation is particularly extreme in Liechtenstein: the country’s three largest banks alone, LTG, Liechtensteinische Landesbank (LLB) and VP Bank, together have total assets of CHF 60 billion (around EUR 59 billion). That is ten times the principality’s gross domestic product.