Swiss banks ban top executive travel

Swiss banks ban top executive travel

www.ft.com

Switzerland’s private banks have started to ban their top executives from travelling abroad, even to neighbouring France and Germany, because of fears they will be detained as part of a global crackdown on bank secrecy.

The head of one leading private bank in Geneva said the growing determination of countries such as the US and Germany to tackle tax evasion and secrecy meant banks felt they had to take extra measures to protect employees.

“Some banks have taken this precaution,” he said. “If today I go to Germany to visit two banks I deal with...German customs can take me in and question me.”

The travel bans, which have not been brought in by all banks, have focused on those visiting the US, following the detention there last year of a senior private banker from UBS, Switzerland’s biggest bank, as part of a federal tax investigation.

The head of the private bank, which itself has no travel restrictions, said: “Today if you are a banker from Switzerland going to the US you have to fear you will be taken in for questioning. I am thinking twice about going to America.”

However, four people in the private banking industry in Geneva told the Financial Times of banks bringing in total travel bans for staff, even for adjoining European countries.

(visit the link for the full news article)


Admin Edit: Corrected Thread Title To Accurately Portray The Article.



[edit on 28-3-2009 by Crakeur]

Wow! Finally some bankers are starting to fear that their corruption will actually be held against them. This is wonderful news.

The fact that they are effectively starting a hide at home policy here, tells me they are still very corrupt and still have things to hide. Problem now is they will be forced to use proxys to go out and do their business, so their level of secrecy will increase.




www.ft.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Yes, but justice won't reach those bankers, they have a lot to hide, but secrecy and misplaced power will persist. Hopefully the day comes where information leaks and we get to know the bad guys although the chances of that happening are very low, they are on high alert and will do anything to suppress certain information.

This is a good thing. Maybe people will begin to realize that banks are a defacto states unto themselves.

This is the reason they get away with the secrecy and criminal money laundering the do. Once they get demoted to chartered businesses - like they were SUPPOSED to be, their abuses will stop.

Hm maybe, although I don't think its about realization, enough people know what is going on and are working hard to go against all those abuses, but the system offers too much holes that just call to be abused, its hard to fill those holes with laws and regulations, in fact, there is a desperate need for a new system.

Originally posted by Clairaudience
Hm maybe, although I don't think its about realization, enough people know what is going on and are working hard to go against all those abuses, but the system offers too much holes that just call to be abused, its hard to fill those holes with laws and regulations, in fact, there is a desperate need for a new system.

The system doesn't seem to be headed in a good direction though. Lots of new world order talk going on with the economic collapse. If there is any question of these banks business practices, why can't they be called before some kind of department of justice or government inquery.

If their local government doesn't comply with a genuine request from another country, backed by evidence, to speak to one of these bankers it just shows the government is complicit in this aswell.

reply to post by FreeSpeaker


Yes, I believe a New World Order is not avoidable, in any way we have to form a unified system, although the possibilities of abuses are endless.

Good point you made, and indeed the involvement of the government is greater than one might expect!