Saturday, March 14, 2009

"Dead" Secrecy: UBS at Crosshair

Services have always been difficult to pitch because of the sheer fact that quality for them is difficult to measure due to their intangibility. So at times it boils down to the order of priority and the relativity of what one refers to as outstanding quality. Banking is an industry which has been fiercely competitive in this area, offering a bundle of services that competitors do not. So what sets apart a bank and a particular banking system are the critical unique differentiators.

At the pinnacle of this in the banking world sit the Swiss banks due to the code of secrecy that they stick to, bestowed upon them by the softer norms in the Swiss banking system. Secrecy is why the Swiss banking system has always stood apart and has managed to beat even the likes of Cayman Islands. But this very foundation of the Swiss Banking system is jittery now as US Tax authorities have demanded UBS to release the names of 52000 Americans who are suspected of opening secret accounts to evade taxes. UBS needs business in US right now and it cannot turn a deaf year to the US Tax authorities and has thus agreed to release 250 names.

But the earth shattering repercussion for this will be that UBS will have a chink in the armour and there will be no further reason for customers to do business with Swiss banks. Secrecy is their business and if it goes away then it will take the entire Swiss banking system with it. What surfaces will be a whole lot of chaos for the Swiss banks and unimaginable volume of business for the banks in the Cayman Islands.

Posted by: Rahul

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

The USA cannot bow to the wishes of the EU and their high tax regimes. the reason why they want the Swiss banks out of the picture is so they can raise taxes. Soon, we will follow. Those rich people would gladly pay some taxes. But not when the taxes are spent by a bunch of liberal baffoons.
The other banks in the world should emulate the Swiss, not try to destroy them. If all countries were "tax havens", the citizens would keep their money at home.
All these high tax liberal socialist countries would rather destroy the Swiss banks than to COMPETE with them. What happened to the US competitive spirit. Our desire to be competitive has been the reason why we are so great. Let's COMPETE with the Swiss. Let's have an incentive for our US citizens to keep their money in the USA. Let's beat the Swiss at their own game.
Senator Levin spent years trying to force the Swiss to give up the names of US citizens that have accounts at Swiss banks. If he would have spent all that time and our taxpayer money finding ways to COMPETE with them, we wouldn't be talking about it today .And besides that, let the USA once and for
all quit meddling in the affairs of another country.
If the Swiss have no privacy, look for a WORLD WIDE SURGE IN TAXES

Rahul said...

Hello There,

u have a point but the problem is that the guidelines in US and most other countries make tax evasion and money laundering very difficult. This acts in the favor of Swiss Banks and those in Cayman Islands...

Anonymous said...

Hello,
We got interested in your web resource and we would like to place the link of our site on your web site.
Our website is devoted to credit cards and it's at the top 10 in Google for the keywords 'credit cards'. It's a high traffic site with PR4 and it contains loads of useful financial information presented in news and articles that highlight the most much-talked-of issues such as credit cards, debt solutions, financial crisis, ways out of it, and many more.
We believe this information can awake interest in your readers as well. We would like to cooperate with you.
Let me know, please, if you are interested in our offer and I'll send some more details of the websites.
Looking forward to hearing from you.

Best regards,
Jess Anderson,
jess@acclaimnetwork.com

life insurance uk said...

The above thought is smart and doesn’t require any further addition. It’s perfect thought from my side.