More Cracks In The International Banking System

 

CNBC: Credit Suisse shares plunge 17% as bank announces huge third-quarter loss and strategic overhaul 

* Credit Suisse has been plagued by sluggish investment banking revenues, losses relating to its business in Russia and litigation costs following a host of legacy compliance and risk management failures, most notably the Archegos hedge fund scandal. 

* The embattled lender posted a third-quarter net loss of 4.034 billion Swiss francs ($4.09 billion), compared with analyst expectations for a loss of 567.93 million Swiss francs. The figure is also well below the 434 million Swiss franc profit posted for the same quarter last year. 

Credit Suisse shares plunged 17% on Thursday after the Swiss bank posted a quarterly loss that was significantly worse than analyst estimates, and announced a massive strategic overhaul. 

Read more ....  

Update #1: Credit Suisse seeks billions from investors in make-or-break shake-up (Reuters)  

Update #2: Credit Suisse cuts 9,000 jobs to stem losses (BBC)  

WNU Editor: The Saudis are going to bail them out. This is astounding. Credit Suisse use to be a global Tier 1 bank. No more now.

The End Of Swiss Bank Secrecy?

Bank for International Settlements (BIS) in Basel, Switzerland (Reuters / Arnd Wiegmann)

Switzerland, Singapore Join Clampdown On Bank Secrecy -- 7 News/Reuters

PARIS (Reuters) - Switzerland and Singapore joined on Tuesday the growing ranks of countries agreeing to share tax information in a major breakthrough against bank secrecy, the OECD said.

Under the pledge signed by a total 47 countries, all financial information will be shared between governments, including taxpayers' bank balance, dividends, interest income and sales proceeds used to calculate capital gains tax.

"It's clearly the end of bank secrecy abused for tax purposes," OECD tax director Pascal Saint-Amans told journalists at a meeting held by the international think tank in Paris.

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More News On The End Of Swiss Bank Secrecy

Swiss sign on to OECD tax evasion measure -- The Local
Switzerland pledges to lift veil on tax secrecy -- Financial Times
End of bank secrecy? Switzerland, Singapore agree to share tax information -- RT
47 countries move on tax evasion by agreeing to share bank data -- Expatica
Black Money: Switzerland, India, 45 Others Agree on Tax Info Exchange -- NDTV
Singapore and US reach tax evasion deal-- BBC

Update: 'Central Asia and Africa may take place of Switzerland and Singapore as offshore banking havens' -- RT

Swiss Building A 'Swiss Cloud' To Sheild Sensitve Financial Data From The NSA

The headquarters of the Swiss banks UBS, left, and Credit Suisse in Zurich. Karin Hofer for The New York Times

Swisscom Builds 'Swiss Cloud' As Spying Storm Rages -- Reuters

ZURICH (Reuters) - Swisscom is building a "Swiss Cloud" that could loosen the grip of U.S. technology giants and attract foreign companies looking for a way to shield sensitive data from the prying eyes of foreign intelligence services.

Companies are increasingly turning to cloud computing - an umbrella term for technology services such as email and business software offered remotely via the Internet instead of on-site - to cut costs and add flexibility to their IT departments.

But revelations that the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) secretly gathered user data from nine big U.S. tech companies including Google, Apple and Facebook has demonstrated that privacy for users of cloud services can be compromised, and some suggest customers could seek out alternatives to the dominant U.S. providers to try and protect sensitive information.

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My Comment: NSA monitoring of international financial transactions is upsetting the Europeans. Additional reports (see here and here) has only added to these privacy concerns. As a result .... a  "Swisscloud" will probably be well received .... if they can keep the NSA out.

Swiss Banking Secrecy Is No More

Tax-Cheat Showdown: Fess Up or Stay Quiet? -- Wall Street Journal

The Internal Revenue Service is staging a massive poker game. It has invited 52,000 UBS AG account holders to the table.

Now that the U.S. and Swiss governments have resolved a longstanding dispute about disclosing the identities of secret Swiss bank accounts, the holders face an acute dilemma: Do they confess their tax-evasion sins and possibly give up a large portion of their offshore accounts? Or do they stay quiet, hoping to avoid detection, but risk far greater penalties or even criminal prosecution if exposed to authorities?

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Update: US Builds Crime Cases on Clients of UBS -- CNBC

My Comment: So much for the tradition and history of Switzerland's bank secrecy laws.

US, Swiss Keep Deal On Secret Accounts Under Wraps

From Breitbart/AP:

MIAMI (AP) - The Swiss and U.S. governments announced a deal Wednesday to settle American demands for the identities of suspected tax dodgers, despite Switzerland's vaunted bank secrecy. But they kept all details under wraps, including how many of the 52,000 names sought by the IRS from banking giant UBS AG will be revealed.

Depending on the scale of the deal, it could be a new blow to Switzerland's reputation as a safe place to hide assets from the tax man back home.

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My Comment: Time for me to close my bank account.

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.

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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.