Swiss Bankers Despondent Over Increasing Regulatory Burden
by Ulrika Lomas, Tax-News.com, Brussels
20 January 2004

The Swiss Private Bankers Association was critical about the increasing regulatory requirements being placed on the industry last week, arguing they add to costs without necessarily adding to increased investor protection

“The problem is actually the sheer quantity of what’s happening. We are faced with about 20 new regulations of quite some importance this year,” Konrad Hummler, a managing partner with a St Gallen-based institution revealed to Swissinfo.

“It’s difficult to quantify in franc or dollar terms but I usually use about 30 per cent of my time for regulatory questions. There’s not a lot of added value behind that obviously,” Swissinfo quoted Hummler as saying..

The association is also deeply sceptical that the EU directed withholding tax will be in place in time for January 2005 given the weight of administrative and technical requirements to be implemented in the coming months.

http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/Swissinfo.html?siteSect=161&sid=4634411