(Zurich) The press revelations about accounts at Credit Suisse published under the name of “Switzerland secrets” have revived debates about the transparency of the Swiss financial center after years of efforts to improve its image.
Posted at 11:44 a.m.
On Sunday, Credit Suisse was rocked by revelations from the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), a consortium of 47 media, including The world, The Guardian where the New York Timesclaiming that the bank had for several decades hosted funds from sulphurous clients.
The number two in the Swiss banking sector firmly rejected these accusations, considering that they were based on “partial”, “inaccurate” or “taken out of context” data, pointing out that some dated back to the 1940s and that 90% of the accounts concerned were now closed.
These allegations appear as “a concerted effort to discredit not only the bank but the Swiss financial center as a whole”, replied the banking establishment.
Reputation of Swiss banks
Contacted by AFP, the shareholder organization Actares, which had asked the bank to initiate a dialogue after repeated scandals last year, did not hide that these revelations were “certainly not” what she hoped.
“Credit Suisse must finally create transparency in a seemingly unmanageable sum of discrepancies that affects not only investors, but also the reputation of Swiss banks,” castigated this shareholder organization.
Without denying the role banking secrecy has played in Switzerland’s success in the past, the Zurich daily NZZ has himself noted in his columns that “part of the cases revealed by Suisse Secrets” would no longer be possible” under current legislation.
The data analyzed in this survey covers 18,000 bank accounts hosted by the bank from the early 1940s to the late 2010s.
Under strong pressure, especially after a standoff with the United States on tax evasion, but also with the twists and turns concerning stolen data handed over to the German tax authorities, Switzerland has meanwhile significantly revised its legislation.
In 2014, it had ratified a cooperation agreement with the United States obliging financial institutions to transmit certain data to the American tax authorities before signing in 2015 an agreement with Brussels concerning the automatic exchange of information.
“The system for combating money laundering has been constantly developed and strengthened in recent years,” insisted the Swiss Bankers Association in an email to AFP.
“Dodgy money does not interest the Swiss financial center, for which reputation and integrity are key factors,” she insisted.
Panama paper effect
According to a report published at the end of October by the Swiss Ministry of Finance, reports to the Money Laundering Reporting Office (MROS) were four times higher on annual average between 2015 and 2019 than over the previous ten years.
The authors of this report had explained “this rain of reports” by the fact that the banks, more sensitive to the risks that could affect them, had more control over their customers since major corruption cases such as the operation Lavajato in Brazil but also since press revelations such as the Panama Papers or Paradise Papers.
At the same time, the legislative provisions with regard to the press have also been tightened, the major Swiss titles regretting this time not having been able to participate in the revelations of “Suisse secrets”.
In the immediate future, these revelations are nonetheless a new fire to be extinguished for the management of Credit Suisse, according to analysts at RBC Capital Markets. Since March 2021, the bank has been rocked in turn by the bankruptcy of the financial company Greensill, the implosion of the American fund Archegos, the fines for loans in Mozambique and the abrupt resignation of its president, eight and a half months after his arrived at the controls, for breaking the quarantine rules.
As of 9:17 a.m. EST, the stock, which has already lost more than 38% since last March, fell 2.81% to 8.05 Swiss francs, weighing on the SMI, the benchmark index of the Swiss Stock Exchange, down 0.59%.
FINMA, Switzerland’s market watchdog, is “in contact” with the bank after the revelations, she told AFP, without comment.