Offshore
Swiss Banks Defy Assaults On Secrecy To Keep Pulling In Client Cash - Survey
Swiss private banks, beset by assaults on client secrecy by the US, Germany and other nations, have still managed to attract more than SFr50 billion (around $53 billion) of assets since the end of 2007, according to figures compiled by Bloomberg.
UBS clients withdrew SFr248 billion during the past two and a half years but those redemptions were exceeded by net flows into the nation’s 19 other biggest banks by client assets, the news service said, based on data it has compiled across the sector.
The figures show how the presumed demise of Switzerland as a banking centre may have been exaggerated, even though the partial breach of bank secrecy achieved in a number of recent cases is a serious issue. Banking accounts for around 12 per cent of Swiss gross domestic product.
Starting in a few days' time, Swiss banks such as UBS and Credit Suisse will reveal their latest quarterly results, including data on client behaviour at the wealth management side of these businesses.
The news service said that Credit Suisse, Pictet & Cie and Bank Sarasin & Cie won the most funds, bringing in almost SFr196 billion between them. Swiss firms opened branches elsewhere in Europe to keep clients who no longer want to bank in Switzerland, and invested in Asia, where the number of millionaires rose 26 per cent last year.
The woes of Swiss banks in the face of mounting foreign government pressure are well documented. Client information stolen from banks with branches in the Alpine state has been sold to governments such as Germany’s, while the US and Swiss governments last year agreed to a transfer by UBS of 4,450 client details to the US under a civil case.
The data may suggest, however, that Swiss banking remains attractive not just because of the privacy issue that is now under threat, but also because over the years the country has developed a critical mass of expertise in handling the affairs of wealthy clients. Meanwhile, rising taxes and regulations in financial centres such as London continue to make Switzerland attractive by comparison.
