Offshore
Swiss Banks Hiring More Staff Outside Switzerland Due To EU Rules - Industry
It makes more sense for people hunting a job at Swiss private banks to apply for roles at these firms’ European subsidiaries instead of Switzerland, with regulations having an impact, it has been claimed.
It makes more sense for people hunting a job at Swiss private
banks to apply for roles at these firms’ European subsidiaries
instead of Switzerland, with regulations having an impact, it has
been claimed.
The trend of employees at units outside Switzerland has risen by
67 per cent to 900, compared with just 6 per cent in the Alpine
state, the Association of Swiss Private Banks, holding its annual
meeting in Basel in early June.
“We find that members of our association internationalise [their
business] unabated,” Christoph Gloor, president of the
association, said in a speech to members.
Swiss banks are facing the risk that, under European Union laws,
banks serving EU-based clients have to set up local branch
offices, a costly burden on many of the smaller Swiss firms – of
which there are many.
Obstacles to cross-border banking are, according to Bloomberg,
encouraging firms to open operations in European nations, hire
local staff or relocate employees from Switzerland. The news
service gave the example of Pictet & Cie Group SCA that in March
opened a Munich office, while Mirabaud SCA opened another Spanish
office in Valencia at the end of March.
Swiss banks are also being encouraged to create local operations
in European nations as a way of dealing with the need by clients
to regularise previously undeclared accounts as efficiently and
cheaply as possible.
In his speech, published on the association’s website, Gloor
reiterated the continued after-shocks of the 2008 financial
crisis, and the heightened pressure on Switzerland’s bank secrecy
laws and status as an offshore centre. (According to recent data
from Boston Consulting Group published this week, Switzerland
holds about 26 per cent of all offshore money globally, or around
$2.3 trillion.)
Gloor warned that as countries try to regulate cross-border
capital flows more tightly in a purported desire to squeeze tax
evaders, that a new form of “financial protectionism” was
emerging, creating different regulatory blocs in parts of the
world, such as the EU. This is particularly worrisome for a
country such as Switzerland, which is not part of such a bloc, he
said.
Last December, the Association of Swiss Private Banks replaced
the Geneva Private Bankers organisation, a move that was made
following changes to the legal structure of some Swiss private
banks – ending the old unlimited liability system for family
partners. Association members are Bordier & Cie, E Gutzwiller &
Cie, Gonet & Cie, La Roche 1787 Private Bankers, Lombard Odier &
Cie, Mirabaud & Cie, Mourgue d’Algue & Cie, Pictet & Cie, Rahn &
Bodmer Co and Reichmuth Co.