Ethics and governance in the European Financial centers

The Times and other media have reported that a federal court took the unprecedented step of demanding that the Swiss bank hand over the names of as many as 20,000 of its customers

The US law requires a US taxpayer to report all financial accounts in a foreign country if the total value of the accounts exceeds $10,000. Failure to report a foreign account can lead to a penalty of up to 50 per cent of the amount in the account at the time of the violation.This is the first time that the US courts have authorised such a request over a foreign bank and the move could put it on a collision course with the authorities in Switzerland, where it is illegal for banks to disclose confidential information without client approval because of the banking secrecy.

In a statement, the bank said: “UBS takes this matter very seriously and is working diligently with both Swiss and US government authorities, consistent with Swiss law and the legal frameworks for intergovernmental cooperation and assistance.”

Swissinfo has repôrted that a Miami judge has authorised United States officials to seek information from Switzerland's largest bank, UBS, on taxpayers suspected of evading income taxes.

Some observers see the decision as putting further pressure on Switzerland's traditional banking secrecy laws

Read article

Il was reported that Swiss banks UBS and Credit Suisse agreed settlement pay-outs to Parmalat.
The Parmalat collapse five years ago was one of Europe's biggest financial scandals: more than 14 billion euros went missing from the group's accounts, wiping out the savings of around 135,000 people in Italy.

Know more

Several media have reported that a former UBS Banker Pleads Guilty in Tax Evasion.

Read press release from the Depaertment of Justice

Read New York Times
Read Financial Times
Read The Telegraph
Read AFP

The Council of Europe’s Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) has published recently its Joint First and Second Round Evaluation Report on Switzerland (link to the report). The report is made public with the agreement of the country’s authorities.
GRECO has issued 13 recommendations, in total, to Switzerland in the above-mentioned areas. Measures taken to implement these recommendations will be addressed by GRECO in the context of a specific compliance procedure in the second half of 2009.




Read press release

Read Report

According to the Financialm Times, UBS has told members of its former private banking team responsible for rich US clients not to travel to America.

Read article

A former UBS private banker charged with helping a US client evade millions of dollars in taxes is set to plead guilty at a court hearing next month

Business Times

IHT

A Beat Balzli and Frank Hornig from the Spiegel wrote, after fighting Switzerland's banking secrecy laws for decades, European finance ministers are about to receive support from the United States. Investigations into major Swiss bank UBS and a proposed law against tax havens are ratcheting up pressure against the system.

Know more

Richard Murphy recently observed that the Swiss Private Banker’s Association has looked at the consequences of making tax evasion a criminal offence in Switzerland (where it does not have that status at present) and has found that after asking someone they call a highly regarded expert on the subject - Professor Xavier Oberson, of Geneva University that the change would lead to an overall revision of Switzerland’s tax system.

Richard concluded that there will be those who will argue long and hard in Switzerland for retaining its corrupt ways, but it’s more likely many are now seeing the reality of their future, and are rapidly reconciling themselves to a world in which surviving of the wages of fraud looks like a cosy little number whose days were always going to be numbered.

Read Richard Murphy's post

The PFP has reported that Switzerland's largest bank, UBS, has disclosed that the US Justice Department is investigating whether its bankers helped wealthy Americans evade paying income tax on their investments and that the Zurich-based bank said it was cooperating with both the Justice Department and the SEC.

Know more