SWISS POINT OF VIEW
Banking is 20% of the GNP of Switzerland
Can the Swiss make up for a shortfall in banking GNP with candy, watches and cheese? Not without lowering their standard of living.
What can the Swiss do to keep foreigners banking in their country?
Pretend to support international standards, but in reality support the old system: provide a shelter for money. Provide absolute bank secrecy.
Some international banks have seen the future and are trying hard to comply with US and other foreign countries’ demands that the Swiss deal above board with their nationals’ money, so that a country can collect taxes owed.
Between 2006 and 2008 when it was clear that the US Department of Justice would go after Swiss banks, many former asset mangers at banks become independent asset managers and took their clients with them.
The Swiss banks consented to this exodus because, fearful of penalties, they wanted to get rid of accounts targeted by the US Department of Justice.
To protect their US clients from investigation by the DOJ the independent money managers converted the accounts of US citizens into other nationalities by transferring ownership to an offshore shell company and/or using so called trust and company service providers. Now the account is no longer a US citizen’s account. It returns to the original Swiss bank under the changed ownership.
The beneficial owner is still the US citizen. The Swiss are happy to report they no longer have US citizens’ accounts. They are even happier that they still have US citizens’ money under another name. In an as yet unsigned treaty, no information on US accounts before 2008 can be retrieved by the Department of Justice.
US POINT OF VIEW
For decades, acting under Swiss privacy laws, the money of US citizens has been exempt from taxation because it has been hidden in Switzerland.
Beginning in 2008, the US decided to stop this tax evasion. They have called the harboring of offshore assets to the world’s attention. As a result, billions of dollars have been added to the US tax coffers.
The US has entered into a treaty with the Swiss government, which requires that privacy considerations be overridden by discovery demands. The Swiss have fought hard to resist the treaty, which they accuse the US of failing to sign. The US has not signed this treaty because it leaves too many loopholes for Swiss bankers to slip through as the promise their clients privacy/secrecy.
Furthermore, the department of Justice, litigating against people who do not comply unless they are facing a jail sentence, have had difficult amassing evidence which will hold up in US courts. Things have recently taken a turn for the better in a California case, and in the Armein indictment in US Southern District in New York.
As matters stand now, only when an insider turns coat and traces the money trail for litigators is there any hope for success. But the DOJ seems to be targeting more useful individuals and has begun to win cases.
What is perfectly clear from the US point of view is that the Swiss are going to do whatever they can under the umbrella of the law to keep a business that is 20 percent of their gross national product.
