Switzerland Tough On Money Laundering Say Bankers

by Ulrika Lomas, Tax-News.com, Brussels

11 August 2003

Switzerland has a strong financial regulatory framework and accusations from overseas that the country remains a pillar of banking secrecy are unjustified, representatives from the Swiss banking sector told a seminar recently.

“We cannot have a situation where people claim that in Switzerland, control weaknesses supposedly keep occurring,” Urs Roth, chief executive of the Swiss Bankers Association told the seminar.

"Where Switzerland has excessive regulation compared with the foreign competition, nothing is done about it. In the long run this may produce a widening gap that could be very damaging for our banks and therefore our economy," warned Roth.

Meanwhile, also speaking at the conference was Hanspeter Bauer, head of compliance at UBS, and he cited the case of ex-ruler of Zaire Joseph Mobutu who is alleged to have laundered much of his wealth through the Swiss banking system.

"There turned out to be very little of [Joseph] Mobutu’s money in Switzerland after his death,” Bauer told the conference, continuing: “But nobody investigated neighbouring countries, where he had residences and who were the former colonial powers of his country.”

Bauer assured the seminar that Switzerland now has tough measures in place to combat the threat of money laundering, and pointed to a scheme designed to track the funds of 'politically exposed' investors. “Whenever a minister from another country wants to open an account with us, we check whether he is on our list,” Bauer said, referring to a list drawn up by UBS containing 400,000 foreign government members, heads of state and officials.

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