Swiss banks know they handle dirty money, so why do we let them have banking licences here?

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The Epoch Times (a new one on me, I admit) has reported:

Hundreds of billions of dollars could be moved out of Swiss banks as clients attempt to flee a coordinated crackdown on tax evasion, UBS's Jürg Zeltner told magazine Schweizer Bank on Sept. 17. The crackdown will likely cost Switzerland its tax-haven status.

The head of the UBS wealth management unit predicted that his bank will lose about 12 billion to 30 billion Swiss francs (US$12.8 billion to 31.9 billion) of the 783 billion francs in assets under management for wealthy clients. “As a consequence of the realignment of the financial center and the planned withholding tax, we assume that a total of hundreds of billions of francs will flow out of Switzerland, he told Schweizer Bank.

Credit Suisse, the other big player in wealth management, estimates it will lose over $37 billion over the next few years as European clients withdraw their money. German business consultants ZEB estimate that out of the total 2.8 trillion francs ($3 trillion) that the roughly 300 Swiss banks have under management, 800 billion francs could be untaxed funds from European citizens. ZEB predicts that 200 billion of those funds could be withdrawn due to several tax treaties and investigative breakthroughs.

So the Swiss banks know they're handling dirty money. And they will help it move, no doubt to Singapore, where all Swiss banks have extensive operations. And yet these banks all have banking licences in the UK and throughout the EU.

Why is that? If they so readily admit they know they're handling stolen property aren't they automatically not fit and proper people to have banking licences?

What does the FSA have to say?


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