If you thought tax evasion was insignificant think again – managing it represents 6 – 7% of the Swiss economy

Posted on

This is from 2009, but as important today as it was then:

Ivan Pictet, president of the Geneva Financial Centre, has been actively promoting bank secrecy this week in a number of interviews with Swiss media. In a key interview with Le Temps, published Tuesday 24 February he argues that the loss of banking secrecy would reduce the size of Switzerland's financial centre by half. It currently represents 6-7% of the country's GDP, with CHF1,100 billion in foreign wealth under management.

The corruption associated with banking secrecy is all that keeps half of the money in Swiss banks. They knew it then. They know it know. They knew it was vital to their economy. So too does George Osborne. But he's signed a deal with them. Now, with the Austrian government (which quietly rivals the Swiss for abuse) the UK is the sole international supporter of Swiss banking secrecy and the only major economy willing to condone it for a small penalty payment on the part of those who partook of it.

Why is that?


Thanks for reading this post.
You can share this post on social media of your choice by clicking these icons:

You can subscribe to this blog's daily email here.

And if you would like to support this blog you can, here:

  • Richard Murphy

    Read more about me

  • Support This Site

    If you like what I do please support me on Ko-fi using credit or debit card or PayPal

  • Taxing wealth report 2024

  • Newsletter signup

    Get a daily email of my blog posts.

    Please wait...

    Thank you for sign up!

  • Podcast

  • Follow me

    LinkedIn

    LinkedIn

    Mastodon

    @RichardJMurphy

    Twitter

    @RichardJMurphy

    Instagram

    @RichardJMurphy