There is no banking crisis in Switzerland despite the ongoing spread of the US financial turmoil, head of the Swiss Bankers Association Pierre Mirabaud told Swiss newspaper Sonntag in an interview published yesterday.

"Switzerland is better positioned than many other countries. You cannot talk about a banking crisis here," Mirabaud said.

Mirabaud said he believed that no Swiss bank would collapse as the country's banking system was healthy.

Switzerland has more than 320 banks, and only the two biggest ones, namely UBS and Credit Suisse, have been directly affected by the financial crisis, he said.

But the two banks are not at the center of the storm, according to the banker.

He added that UBS had timely recapitalized itself before the crisis deteriorated last month, and Credit Suisse had been much less affected from the very start.

The Swiss government has promised that neither one of the country's two largest banks will be allowed to go bankrupt.

"We in no way would want one of our big banks to find itself a serious crisis that might lead to bankruptcy," Economics Minister Doris Leuthard told Swiss media on Thursday.

"The federal government would absolutely prevent that," she added.

But the minister warned against any panic and over-hasty intervention from the government, which she said would do more harm than good.