Category: 3. Business

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UBS has criticised the Swiss government for failing to properly consider less stringent bank capital reforms, with the lender arguing that proposals to significantly increase its capital requirements have already cost its investors nearly $40bn.

UBS said plans for it to increase its capital requirements were “excessive, disproportionate, not internationally aligned and not targeted”, in a response to a consultation on the reform package published on Monday.

Switzerland’s largest bank has been at loggerheads with the government for nearly two years over plans to force it to back its foreign subsidiaries with an extra $23bn in common equity tier one capital — the most expensive form of bank capital.

The government has said the move is necessary to mitigate the risk of a repeat of the collapse of Credit Suisse, which UBS acquired in a state-orchestrated rescue in 2023.

UBS said in its consultation response that the proposal would damage its ability to compete with international peers, would lead to higher borrowing and service costs for all clients, and would “jeopardise the continuation of the successful UBS business model”. It added that the extra capital requirements being proposed by the government would increase UBS’s costs by $1.7bn a year.

The bank also said that alternative proposals to the government’s “extreme” position, which would “have an equivalent effect at lower cost”, had “not been given adequate consideration”.

“The [government] has rejected these [alternative proposals] because they do not meet the extreme objective of zero risk tolerance,” UBS said.

However, a cross-party group of Swiss politicians in December laid out a set of compromise proposals, which recommended considerably watering down the government’s original plans.

The lawmakers proposed allowing UBS to use additional tier one debt to cover up to half of the capitalisation of its foreign units, significantly reducing the overall capital hit, in a move that buoyed analysts and investors.

The largest party in Switzerland’s parliament, the right-wing Swiss People’s Party, last week said it supported the lawmakers’ alternative proposals, in a further sign that a compromise deal could be getting closer. The party’s consultation document described the government’s proposals as “not proportionate” and expressed concern that parts of the sweeping banking reforms were being presented in isolation.

Its backing was seen as important because the reforms to foreign subsidiaries are subject to parliamentary approval. Parliamentary debates on draft legislation are expected to start during the second half of this year.

The centrist FDP, the party of finance minister Karin Keller-Sutter, has also supported a compromise. Keller-Sutter is the driving force behind the reform proposals.

In a separate submission on Monday, the Swiss Bankers Association warned the government against “recklessly” tightening capital rules beyond international standards, arguing the proposals were disproportionate, unaligned with global peers and risked undermining Switzerland’s competitiveness without materially improving financial stability.

The saga over UBS’s capital position has also weighed heavily on the bank’s share price.

UBS said on Monday the uncertainty had caused its market value to underperform banks in Europe and the US by 27 per cent — at a cost of about $37bn to its investors — between April 2024 and the end of last year, which amounted to “significant value destruction for UBS shareholders in addition to the costs of integrating Credit Suisse”.

The Swiss government has argued that its reform package, which also includes separate measures to strengthen the quality of UBS’s capital base, will substantially reduce the likelihood of another systemically important bank in Switzerland falling into a severe crisis.

However, UBS said on Monday that additional capital costs would damage its international competitiveness at a time when other global financial centres are pursuing lighter-touch banking regulation.

“The [government’s] proposals would significantly increase the requirements and would contrast sharply with developments in Europe and the US, where deregulation initiatives have already been announced,” UBS said.

The bank has held discussions about moving its headquarters to the US if the capital proposals are not watered down, the FT previously reported.

One of Scotland’s smallest distilleries is working with Heriot-Watt scientists to find out whether aluminium could replace glass bottles for its Scotch whisky.

Stirling Distillery is working with experts from the School of Engineering and Physical Sciences on the project, which investigates how whisky behaves when stored in aluminium rather than traditional glass bottles.

Kathryn Holm from Stirling Distillery initiated the project. She said: “We want to make our distillery as sustainable as possible ahead of our first mature whisky being released in 2027.

“The whisky industry is looking at lots of ways to minimise its footprint. We’ve already undertaken a range of sustainability measures – packaging is one of the remaining areas where we can innovate and make an impact.

“Glass has long been central to whisky’s image; it’s weighty, and evokes the craftsmanship of the spirit.

“But it is also heavy to transport and relies on high recycling rates to reduce its environmental impact.

“Aluminium is lighter and widely recycled, so I asked the experts to investigate whether it’s a viable alternative.”

At Heriot-Watt, the researchers from the ICBD and Institute of Chemical Sciences combined advanced chemistry with sensory tests to assess whether aluminium interacts chemically with whisky in a way that alters its flavour or, most importantly, raises safety concerns.

Spirit was put under the microscope

Spirit supplied by Stirling Distillery was placed in aluminium bottles and tested over several months.

Dr Dave Ellis and his student, Charlotte York, tested the spirit using nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, a technique that uses a powerful magnet combined with radiofrequency waves to identify what a substance is made of by measuring how its atoms respond, and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, which detects levels of metals in liquids.

Dave said: “We know that certain organic acids naturally present in matured whisky can react with aluminium, which can lead to aluminium entering the liquid.

“If we stir samples with aluminium metal, the levels were well above what would be considered acceptable for drinking water.”

The chemistry showed that compounds such as gallic acid, which develop during whisky maturation, were reduced or removed after prolonged contact with aluminium. These reactions were much less pronounced in new make spirit, which has not yet developed the same chemical profile

Professor Annie Hill from Heriot-Watt’s ICBD said this highlighted why caution was essential.

“Any innovation has to respect the craft of whisky making while meeting the highest standards of safety.

“The aluminium cans we buy pulses and soup in all have liners to protect the contents from metal contamination.

“In this case the liner within the can wasn’t sufficient to prevent aluminium from passing into the spirit.

“The next stage of this research would be to find a liner that can withstand high alcohol levels for a prolonged period of time without degrading.”

Tasters couldn’t tell the difference

Professor Hill oversaw the sensory testing of the whisky stored in aluminium, carried out by her student Andrew Marr.

“Panellists couldn’t distinguish between whisky stored in aluminium from whisky stored in glass. So the changes detected in the laboratory didn’t translate into differences in aroma. That’s great news – if we can find an effective liner.”

Kathryn Holm said the work would be shared with the wider industry, which is under growing pressure to meet Scotland’s net zero targets while maintaining strict regulatory standards.

Kathryn said: “We are not suggesting glass disappears tomorrow.

“But offering customers a lower carbon option for a premium product is something worth exploring. As a small distillery, we can help start that conversation.”

The reports can be read in full on Stirling Distillery’s website.

You can find out more about how we are raising £35million for our new Centre for Sustainable Brewing and Distilling.

Rebuilding durable foundations for future growth.

As we look ahead to 2026, AI moves beyond experimentation and enters a phase of maturity. The upcoming year will see AI become the backbone of enterprise architecture, reshape software lifecycle development, and redefine cloud consumption. At the same time, enterprise systems are undergoing a fundamental shift toward intelligent operations, while tech sovereignty emerges as a strategic priority, driving organizations to build resilient interdependence. 

Our Top Tech Trends for 2026 reflect this shift toward structural rebuilding, pointing to a single message: technology leadership in 2026 is no longer about experimentation, but about constructing the durable foundations that future innovation will depend on.

In today’s fast-paced business environment, understanding emerging technologies is essential for future planning. Our Top Tech Trends of 2026 report explores five critical technology trends and their implications for organizations and provides a comprehensive look at innovation and technology priorities through the eyes of business decision-makers.

12 January 2026

Plantain (the pasture herb Plantago lanceolata) looks like a practical tool to help cut nitrogen losses from pasture – but it isn’t a silver bullet. That was the message from a recent webinar jointly hosted by the Teagasc Climate Centre and New Zealand’s Ag Emissions Centre.

The webinar featured presentations by Dr Cecile de Klein from Bioeconomy Science Institute on plantain research in New Zealand, followed by Dr Dominika Krol from Teagasc, who gave the Irish context. The findings presented, drawn from glasshouse mesocosms, lysimeter work and field trials, and in New Zealand and Ireland, demonstrate a clear plant/sward effect: increasing plantain proportion in swards can reduce N₂O emission factors (field plots reported reductions up to ~40%), although lysimeter studies produced mixed outcomes depending on soil type and wetness. Persistence of plantain and other species in multispecies swards can be an issue and this requires further research to identify more persistent varieties and low cost management practices to maintain species persistence.

On Irish soils and farms, multispecies swards that include plantain (often with chicory, clovers and two grasses) consistently lowered emission intensity i.e. N₂O per tonne of grass or per unit of nitrogen in the crop. The key findings were:

• Six‑species mixtures (including plantain) cut N₂O intensity by ~24% per unit of dry matter and by over 40% per unit of N compared with ryegrass monocultures (same N fertiliser rate).
• Swards with plantain produced larger urine volumes per event but with lower nitrogen concentration, so overall urinary N deposited to the paddock was lower. This helps reduce both ammonia and N₂O losses from urine patches.
• Mixed swards produced lower emissions from urine patches than less diverse swards.
• Adding 30–50% plantain to ryegrass reduced nitrate leaching in well‑drained soils (and after establishment also in poorer soils).
• On farm‑scale trials, multispecies swards with plantain maintained milk yield, milk solids or pasture productivity with much lower fertiliser inputs.

Taken together, these findings suggest that plantain can deliver environmental gains across a wide range of conditions, with a broad operating space that does not rely on exact species proportions. Ongoing research and modelling efforts will build on this momentum to better define plantain’s contribution within future grassland systems.

Watch the full webinar below:

Click here to learn more about the Teagasc Climate Centre.

Sodexo has once again been ranked on the prestigious CDP¹ Climate A List, positioning itself among the world’s leading companies for environmental transparency and performance. Only 4% of the more than 22,000 companies assessed in 2025 received this top score, and Sodexo is the only company in its sector to achieve this distinction.

Being included on CDP’s A List highlights Sodexo’s consistent commitment to climate action, marking the second time the Group has received CDP’s highest rating. The score reflects both the ambition of Sodexo’s climate strategy, aligned with the Science-Based Targets initiative (SBTi) to achieve Net Zero by 2040, and the rigour, transparency and execution of its environmental disclosures.