11 Swiss banks get deal offer
Source: Agencies |
December 19, 2011, Monday
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Print Edition
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UNITED States officials are offering 11 Swiss banks, among them Credit Suisse, a deal that allows them to avoid criminal prosecution in exchange for revealing full details of their US offshore business to Washington, a paper reported yesterday.
Famed for the care with which it protects account holders' anonymity, the Alpine state has been forced to act by a series of US probes into alleged tax evasion by Americans concealing their assets in Swiss banks.
In 2009, the Swiss parliament approved a deal to allow UBS to reveal details of around 4,450 American clients and pay a US$780 million fine to end lengthy tax proceedings that had threatened the future of the country's biggest bank.
The Swiss government has been in talks with US authorities for months to try to get an investigation into 11 banks dropped, in return for expected hefty fines on the banks and the handing over of the names.
Credit Suisse, Julius Baer and Basler Kantonalbank are among those under investigation.
Citing an unnamed source, the newspaper SonntagsZeitung said 11 banks would each be offered a deal like the one to which UBS agreed.
In exchange, the banks would have to accept US requests for administrative assistance in tax evasion cases that would mean delivering all information on their US offshore business via Bern to the US, the paper reported.
The paper said the banks would likely accept the deal.
Moreover, as part of an agreement the names of the US clients would be blacked out and the banks would also be fined, the paper said, adding that the banks had until tomorrow to agree to the terms in writing.
According to the paper, the information the banks would have to hand over included:
- Correspondence between a bank and its US clients, including notes from telephone conversations and meetings.
- Internal notes about US client business from the relevant business units and management
- Correspondence between banks and third parties, such as independent wealth managers concerning US clients
- All documents about the US business model and about US funds that were transferred to third parties.
The paper said the 11 banks would have to reveal the names of the bankers who conducted the offshore business, though criminal cases against individuals would not be taken up.
Credit Suisse, Basler Kantonalbank and HSBC Switzerland would have to deliver material by December 31, the paper said.
A spokesman for Credit Suisse declined to comment. The Swiss Bankers Association was not available for comment. Neither was a spokesman for Julius Baer.
A spokesman for the State Secretariat for International Financial Matters, which has represented the Swiss government in talks with the US, was also not available.
Famed for the care with which it protects account holders' anonymity, the Alpine state has been forced to act by a series of US probes into alleged tax evasion by Americans concealing their assets in Swiss banks.
In 2009, the Swiss parliament approved a deal to allow UBS to reveal details of around 4,450 American clients and pay a US$780 million fine to end lengthy tax proceedings that had threatened the future of the country's biggest bank.
The Swiss government has been in talks with US authorities for months to try to get an investigation into 11 banks dropped, in return for expected hefty fines on the banks and the handing over of the names.
Credit Suisse, Julius Baer and Basler Kantonalbank are among those under investigation.
Citing an unnamed source, the newspaper SonntagsZeitung said 11 banks would each be offered a deal like the one to which UBS agreed.
In exchange, the banks would have to accept US requests for administrative assistance in tax evasion cases that would mean delivering all information on their US offshore business via Bern to the US, the paper reported.
The paper said the banks would likely accept the deal.
Moreover, as part of an agreement the names of the US clients would be blacked out and the banks would also be fined, the paper said, adding that the banks had until tomorrow to agree to the terms in writing.
According to the paper, the information the banks would have to hand over included:
- Correspondence between a bank and its US clients, including notes from telephone conversations and meetings.
- Internal notes about US client business from the relevant business units and management
- Correspondence between banks and third parties, such as independent wealth managers concerning US clients
- All documents about the US business model and about US funds that were transferred to third parties.
The paper said the 11 banks would have to reveal the names of the bankers who conducted the offshore business, though criminal cases against individuals would not be taken up.
Credit Suisse, Basler Kantonalbank and HSBC Switzerland would have to deliver material by December 31, the paper said.
A spokesman for Credit Suisse declined to comment. The Swiss Bankers Association was not available for comment. Neither was a spokesman for Julius Baer.
A spokesman for the State Secretariat for International Financial Matters, which has represented the Swiss government in talks with the US, was also not available.
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