Financial Transparency Coalition

The Wall Street Journal has run an Op Ed by Holman W. Jenkins, Jr., a member of its editorial board. Published under the title “Does the World Still Need the Swiss? : UBS’s sin was marketing secrecy too broadly.” I am struggling to work out whether it is mad, bad or just plain stupid. The hypothesis is this: that in the World War 2, more by luck than judgement the bank secrecy that the Swiss created to assist tax evaders in France helped the Jews. Of course, it also helped the Nazis: the Swiss were entirely amoral on...

Reuters has reported Swiss press coverage of UBS comments this weekend, It’s amazing stuff. A selection of the quotes are:

"The clients are not just harmless victims. They knew what they wanted to evade," Kaspar Villiger, chairman of the world’s second-largest wealth manager, said in an interview with SonntagsBlick.

"But they trusted the bank that it would work. Now we have to correct that," said Villiger, adding it was still not the responsibility of UBS to make sure clients paid their taxes.

Wrong guys. It is your job to detect money laundering through your...

I’ve spent the last couple of days telling journalists and writing blogs saying that the US must go against the Swiss bankers and lawyers who have set up abusive arrangements for US residents. And USA Today has confirmed that is exactly what they’re doing:

So, the dust is settling. UBS has had to conceded, Swiss banking secrecy is seriously damaged, and now what? Senator Carl Levin, has I note said:

The UBS settlement is at most a modest advance in the effort to end bank secrecy abuses, tax haven bank misconduct, and the tax haven drain on the U.S. treasury. It will take a long time before we know whether this settlement will produce meaningful gains due to treaty procedures which are complex, depend upon the Swiss government to carry out, and open the door to potentially lengthy appeals.

In the meantime,...