The largest Swiss financial holding company UBS Group AG can make changes to the internal policy, under which all employees of the organization will be required to obtain permission to trade cryptocurrency, reports Bloomberg.
At present the Global Policy on Personal Investment is silent on cryptocurrencies and thus disclosure and pre-clearance is not required.
UBS Employee Memo
The bank is considering implementing “additional rules and requirements," including an obligation for staff to seek permission before trading.
It is worth noting that similar rules for UBS employees have previously acted in relation to trade in traditional currencies and securities, so the innovation simply equates digital assets to all the rest.
In addition, the chairman of UBS Axel Weber last week expressed skepticism regarding the crypto currency, noting a possible "massive drop" in the price of bitcoin in the event of tightening of regulation. The Swiss bank does not intend to trade crypto currency or offer it to its customers.
We fear that in the future, if these investments implode and the market corrects, then investors will be looking at ‘who sold us this?
Axel Weber
Chairman, UBS
In November last year, the investment director of UBS Mark Haefele said that the Swiss financial holding company will not invest in bitcoin because of the lack of state control over circulation of crypto currency.
