September 2010

Now three years old, the financial crisis began in mid-summer 2007. Despite periods of remission, it is still not under control and has even spread in some eurozone states. States which have got themselves into serious debt, particularly (but not only) bailing out their banks will be tempted to make the latter pay the political price for this. Three kinds of reaction can be observed: regulatory, budgetary and fiscal. Financial supervisory reforms have been announced in several countries but the international dialogue has been essentially limited to declarations of intent. Up until now, the fight against tax evasion is probably the only area where the crisis has generated – under the auspices of the G20 – tangible decisions on a universal scale. For Switzerland – one of the leading international financial centres and a world leader in wealth management  – these developments present a real challenge. The country has already adopted a variety of regulatory measures and modified its tax cooperation policy. In this field, the Swiss banks have developed innovative propositions.

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