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Tuesday, 9 February 2010
Banking secrecy in Switzerland ‘runs its course’
After relentless international pressure on Swiss banking secrecy, history came full circle last week when Germany decided to use stolen bank data to corner taxpayers with money hidden in Switzerland.
After relentless international pressure on Swiss banking secrecy, history came full circle last week when Germany decided to use stolen bank data to corner taxpayers with money hidden in Switzerland.
Weary Swiss bankers tried to contain another onslaught on the remnants of a wall of secrecy they have struggled to maintain against Europe and the United States.
However, their minds are increasingly set on growing business with Asia and emerging markets. “Banking secrecy is being called into question,” Michel Derobert, the secretary general of the Swiss Private Bankers Association, said. “It is important for past clientele but it’s losing its importance for the clients of the future.”
Swiss banks were legally sworn to secrecy over their clients’ affairs in 1934 as a wave of espionage by Germany’s then Nazi regime against Germans - including Jews and political opponents - with deposits in Switzerland added to other tensions of the era.
Although nobody in Switzerland is making comparisons with 1930s Europe, an anonymous whistle-blower’s recent offer to German authorities annoyed the banking establishment and fuelled domestic doubts about the value of secrecy.
The association claimed Germany was turning into “a receiver of stolen goods” and testing good neighbourly relations. “It’s part of their strategy not to name the bank, to keep people worried,” James Nason, an association spokesman, said.
Germany has been at the forefront of European pressure on Switzerland to counter tax evasion. And last year the G20 group of leading economies forced the Swiss to water down secrecy.
“Banking secrecy no longer has a future. It has run its course,” German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper.
“It is obviously not an easy decision for Switzerland. Banking secrecy is a part of its state tradition,” he said.
Information from a former UBS banker arrested in 2008 formed the backbone of multimillion-dollar US government litigation last year that obliged the Swiss bank to hand over details on some 4,500 suspected tax-dodging US offshore clients.
And last month Swiss and French ministers smoothed over a spat over French use of data taken from the Geneva private banking subsidiary of global giant HSBC.
“It’s embarrassing and painful if you have cases like that but out of 330 banks it’s just three cases in two years,” Nason said.
Experts nonetheless highlighted the harm for the reputation of Swiss banking and the psychological value of the bank secrecy banner.
“This component is pretty well the most important one,” tax lawyer Philippe Kenel said. “Whether the rumours are true or not, it’s clear that trust is affected.”
Meanwhile, the Swiss banking establishment is turning to new business with emerging markets and Asia. The country’s biggest private bank, exclusively serving wealthy clients, Julius Baer on Friday noted an increase in new money and deposits last year, with “continued strong inflows from emerging markets and in particular Asia”.
Kenel said: “The big potential of the future is Russia, Central Asia, the Middle East and above all Asia.”
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Banking secrecy in Switzerland ‘runs its course’
Agence France-Presse in Geneva
08 February 2010
After relentless international pressure on Swiss banking secrecy, history came full circle last week when Germany decided to use stolen bank data to corner taxpayers with money hidden in Switzerland.
Weary Swiss bankers tried to contain another onslaught on the remnants of a wall of secrecy they have struggled to maintain against Europe and the United States.
However, their minds are increasingly set on growing business with Asia and emerging markets. “Banking secrecy is being called into question,” Michel Derobert, the secretary general of the Swiss Private Bankers Association, said. “It is important for past clientele but it’s losing its importance for the clients of the future.”
Swiss banks were legally sworn to secrecy over their clients’ affairs in 1934 as a wave of espionage by Germany’s then Nazi regime against Germans - including Jews and political opponents - with deposits in Switzerland added to other tensions of the era.
Although nobody in Switzerland is making comparisons with 1930s Europe, an anonymous whistle-blower’s recent offer to German authorities annoyed the banking establishment and fuelled domestic doubts about the value of secrecy.
The association claimed Germany was turning into “a receiver of stolen goods” and testing good neighbourly relations. “It’s part of their strategy not to name the bank, to keep people worried,” James Nason, an association spokesman, said.
Germany has been at the forefront of European pressure on Switzerland to counter tax evasion. And last year the G20 group of leading economies forced the Swiss to water down secrecy.
“Banking secrecy no longer has a future. It has run its course,” German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper.
“It is obviously not an easy decision for Switzerland. Banking secrecy is a part of its state tradition,” he said.
Information from a former UBS banker arrested in 2008 formed the backbone of multimillion-dollar US government litigation last year that obliged the Swiss bank to hand over details on some 4,500 suspected tax-dodging US offshore clients.
And last month Swiss and French ministers smoothed over a spat over French use of data taken from the Geneva private banking subsidiary of global giant HSBC.
“It’s embarrassing and painful if you have cases like that but out of 330 banks it’s just three cases in two years,” Nason said.
Experts nonetheless highlighted the harm for the reputation of Swiss banking and the psychological value of the bank secrecy banner.
“This component is pretty well the most important one,” tax lawyer Philippe Kenel said. “Whether the rumours are true or not, it’s clear that trust is affected.”
Meanwhile, the Swiss banking establishment is turning to new business with emerging markets and Asia. The country’s biggest private bank, exclusively serving wealthy clients, Julius Baer on Friday noted an increase in new money and deposits last year, with “continued strong inflows from emerging markets and in particular Asia”.
Kenel said: “The big potential of the future is Russia, Central Asia, the Middle East and above all Asia.”
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