Translated material
Return to paradise
As you know, Switzerland several years ago agreed to exchange banking information with the European Union to combat fraud. However, despite this, the United States accused the Swiss bank UBS of aiding influential American tax criminals. UBS agreed to pay a fine of $780 million and disclose the data of some clients. Switzerland then asked the US government to end its tax investigation into UBS, promising to quickly pass legislation that would allow the two countries to cooperate on the exchange of banking data. Last August, UBS and the US authorities decided to strike a deal: the bank would hand over information about 4,450 accounts of its clients who are US citizens to the US Tax Service, and would then be exempt from legal prosecution. Parliament approved the agreement by a majority vote after a week of debate in which many parliamentarians insisted that the issue be put to a national referendum. Now, according to the agreement, the bank must complete the transfer of data on clients suspected of tax evasion by August.
“I welcome this decision by parliament,” said UBS CEO Oswald Grübel. “I and our entire bank thank the government and those parliamentarians who sought to resolve this issue.” “This is a breakthrough for UBS and for Switzerland as a financial center,” Peter Kunz, a business law specialist at the University of Bern, told Bloomberg. Against the backdrop of this news, UBS shares rose 2.9% during trading in Zurich. The bank's market value now stands at 60.8 billion francs.
“This is good news for buyers of UBS shares,” said WestLB analyst Georg Kanders. “A strong Swiss franc and relative safety will help the bank stop the outflow of funds from large clients.”
Against the background of the scandalous history, UBS experienced an outflow of American clients, and then clients from other countries of the world. As a result, the bank dropped to second place in the world in terms of the volume of money managed by wealthy clients. Experts believe that Swiss banking secrecy is under threat, and this may affect the income of other banks in the country.