Offshore

Swiss Banks Hiring More Staff Outside Switzerland Due To EU Rules - Industry

Tom Burroughes Group Editor London 11 June 2014

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.

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