ZURICH (Reuters) - Suspicious asset flows identified by Swiss authorities reached a record high of more than 3 billion Swiss francs (2 billion pounds) in 2011, lifted in part by wealthy North Africans who sought to move assets into the country as the Arab Spring raged. Keen to clean up its image as a haven for ill-gotten funds, Switzerland has in recent years enacted strict laws on money-laundering. It has also frozen the assets of deposed leaders including the former rulers and their entourages of Tunisia, Egypt and Ivory Coast. The 2011 total was more than those of the two previous years combined, while suspicious activity reports (SARs) were up by 40 percent, the Money Laundering Reporting Office Switzerland (MROS) said on Monday. "The increase ... Continue reading →
It's not a surprise that Rich chose to start his firm in Switzerland, which protects businesses with strict bank and corporate secrecy rules. Another draw, particularly for commodities traders, is Switzerland's political neutrality and corresponding aversion to enforcing international sanctions. The country only joined the United Nations in 2002; until then, companies headquartered there could supply regimes subject to U.N. embargoes, as a number of oil traders did in the case of the South African apartheid state. Switzerland is not a member of the European Union, though, so Swiss-based oil traders are not required, for example, to abide by a new EU ban on importing or marketing Iranian crude. Why, then, did Glencore decide to go public last year, trading away some of that precious ... Continue reading →
By Oliver Hirt and Douwe Miedema ZURICH/LONDON | Tue Apr 17, 2012 11:46am EDT ZURICH/LONDON (Reuters) - Bank of America Merrill Lynch has put its wealth management units outside the United States up for sale, three sources familiar with the situation said, hoping to fetch up to $3 billion for the sub-scale business. Bank of America is the world's largest wealth manager, but its non-U.S. arm - which two of the sources said manages some $90 billion of assets for rich clients - is not large enough to generate enough money for the bank.Bank of America declined to comment. Continue reading →
ZURICH | Sun Apr 15, 2012 10:23am EDT ZURICH (Reuters) - Switzerland will allow banks to hand over the names of any employees and other third parties who helped wealthy Americans evade taxes to U.S. prosecutors, a Swiss newspaper reported on Saturday. Eleven Swiss banks including Credit Suisse (CSGN.VX) and Julius Baer (BAER.VX) are under investigation in the United Stated for aiding U.S. citizens suspected of dodging taxes.In the latest attempt to end the long-running dispute, Switzerland's Federal Council has now authorized banks to hand over email traffic in connection with such clients to U.S. prosecutors, the Tages-Anzeiger newspaper reported.This includes the names of employees and where applicable third parties, such as external wealth managers, lawyers and trustees, but not client data, the paper said.It ... Continue reading →
ZURICH | Fri Apr 13, 2012 3:21am EDT ZURICH (Reuters) - Switzerland cannot make further concessions to Germany and the United States in a dispute over untaxed funds in secret bank accounts, Swiss Finance Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf was quoted as saying in a newspaper interview on Friday. Widmer-Schlumpf also said France and Italy were likely to be watching developments between Berne and Berlin before themselves seeking agreements to claw back taxes."With Germany we're at a point at which we say, if the partner doesn't want this agreement then the status quo is the better alternative for us than to negotiate still further," she told the Neue Zuercher Zeitung."Also in the talks with the USA there's a threshold beyond which we cannot go as a sovereign ... Continue reading →
