Monday, March 2, 2009

Switzerland's Bank Secrecy Rules Will Soon Be No More


Gnomes Of Zurich Face Their Time Of Reckoning -- New Zealand Herald

The gnomes of Zurich have over the years performed heroically. They have succeeded in protecting from the world's tax authorities nearly a third of the world's US$7 trillion of privately held wealth.

But against their will, Swiss bankers are being dragged from subterranean vaults into the light. The fairytale that has delivered a standard of living envied by the rest of the world is slipping away. And the country's power brokers know it.

Last week, as Switzerland's biggest bank, UBS, saw its share price sink to an all-time low, the country's President, Hans-Rudolf Merz, himself a former UBS banker, suggested for the first time that bank secrecy - his country's most precious commodity - is no longer non-negotiable.

Read more ....

My Comment: The implications from this is big. I can easily lose count on the number of dictators, war lords, drug cartels, and arms merchants whose bank accounts that permit their misery to continue are locked away in these banking institutions.

One third of seven trillion dollars is an incredible amount of money .... and I am sure that much of it is blood money.

No comments: