HSBC sells Swiss asset portfolio to LGT Bank

Global bank HSBC announced on Tuesday the sale of a portfolio of private banking assets in Switzerland for an undisclosed amount to Liechtenstein's LGT Bank.

Published: 24 June 2014 12:17 CEST

HSBC sells Swiss asset portfolio to LGT Bank

Photo: AFP

HSBC added in a statement that the portfolio had assets under management of $12.5 billion at the end of 2013.

The deal, which remains subject to regulatory and other approvals, is expected to be completed in the final quarter of this year.

HSBC stressed however that it "remains fully committed to Switzerland as a key international centre for its global private banking business and a priority market for the group."

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Switzerland’s banks remain among the world’s most secretive

Switzerland remains one of the world's least transparent nations. Photo AFP

Switzerland is in the third place in the 2020 Financial Secrecy Index released by the non-governmental organisation (NGO) Tax Justice Network (TJN), which rates 133 nations based on their financial transparency.

Two other European countries, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, are also ranked among the top 10 least transparent nations on the TJN’s list.

Despite being in the third place, Switzerland ranks better this year than it did in the previous edition of the Index, which is released every two years — it slipped from the first to third place. The Cayman Islands and the United States took the first and second spots, respectively.

Switzerland reduced its risk of being an offshore haven for tax cheats by 12 percent, “finally improving enough to move off the top of the index”, TJN said.

This improvement is mainly due to Switzerland extending its international network for the automatic exchange of customer information to more than 100 countries.

Also, in a referendum held last year, Swiss voters accepted the Federal Act on Tax Reform and AVS Financing (TRAF). This legislation introduced major changes in the Swiss tax system by ending some preferential tax schemes and replacing them with new regulations which are in line with international standards.

This tax reform prompted the European Union to change Switzerland's status from ‘tax haven' to one which is EU-compliant, removing strict controls on transactions within the EU.

So why, despite all the reforms, does Switzerland still rank among the world’s least transparent nations?

According to a Swiss NGO Alliance Sud, wealthy people from poor countries can still hide their money here from the tax authorities of their home nations.

Alliance Sud noted that despite the progress made in the past years by Swiss financial institutions, “the fight against tax evasion remains insufficient”.

Switzerland is the world’s biggest centre for managing offshore wealth, with a quarter of global assets invested here.

For years, it has been placed on various lists of tax havens where wealthy foreigners could park their money. Faced with widespread criticism for this practice, Switzerland passed an anti-money laundering law in 1997 and introduced strict regulations against tax evasion.

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