Swiss Bankers Visit New York To Sing Finance Centre's Praises

by Carla Johnson, Investors Offshore.com

25 February 2003

A team of Swiss bankers and regulators are in New York this week in order to educate US finance professionals as to the advantages of Switzerland as a financial centre, and to reassure them with regard to the jurisdiction's regulatory regime.

Coming ahead of the eight week 'swisspeaks' festival, the main event of the promotional drive will be a panel discussion and dinner to be held on Wednesday, which will be attended by Swiss president, Pascal Couchepin and former Texas senator, Phil Gramm, now vice-chairman of UBS Warburg.

Speakers at the discussion will include CEO of the Swiss Bankers Association, Urs Roth, director of the Swiss Federal Banking Commission, Daniel Zuberbuhler, private banker, Pierre Mirabaud, and Wall Street Journal editorial board member, John Fund.

Stressing the banking sector's recognition of the need to be proactive, James Nason of the Swiss Bankers Association told the Swissinfo news service on Monday that:

'The basic aim is to inform New York's financial community about the strengths of the Swiss financial centre. It's also to hammer home the message that financial privacy certainly does not protect terrorists and criminals, if that ever was a worry, and to tell people that Switzerland is a very well regulated international financial centre.'

According to Swissinfo, around 300 people, including representatives from the stock dealing, investment banking, financial advice, and institutional asset management communities have been invited to Wednesday's event.

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