Swiss banking chief says banks need capital cushion, less debt amid credit crisis

GENEVA (AP) _ Switzerland's large banks should increase their capital cushion and cut debt to better face the current credit crisis, the president of the Swiss National Bank said Friday.

"We will firmly support initiatives ... to increase the equity of our large banks and to reduce their debt," Jean-Pierre Roth said at a forum in Geneva.

Such a prescription for dealing with the crisis is already being applied by UBS AG, Switzerland's biggest bank and one of the world's hardest-hit by debts linked to the U.S. subprime mortgage market.

On Thursday, UBS said it would raise US$15.5 billion in a rights issue at a 31 percent …