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)