Swiss banks curtail services to wealthy clients

Swiss private bankers are likely to reduce their exposure to wealthy Indian clients as they cut down their discreet banking services in countries like Germany, France and the United States, analysts say.

As the worldwide crackdown on tax evasion gathered momentum following the recent G-20 meeting in London, several Swiss banks, including UBS, which is the world's largest manager of private wealth assets, have issued travel directives to their "client-facing" staff not to visit foreign countries for carrying out what are called offshore wealth-management banking services.

UBS, for instance, has asked its wealth management staff not to travel abroad to meet clients. "This will also apply to India," said Serge Steiner, a UBS executive. "However, UBS India will continue to service wealth management for Indian clients," he added.

In effect, it would be a complete onshore (domestic) activity unlike the UBS wealth management staff descending from Singapore to service rich Indian clients. At present, Swiss banks manage around $2 trillion offshore assets of clients from various countries.

UBS, which is now mired in a major legal dispute with the US tax authorities, has passed information of over 300 accounts of wealthy American clients to the US Internal Revenue Service. But the IRS is not satisfied with UBS and it wants the Swiss bank to provide information on some 52,000 American clients. Besides, two UBS bankers were arrested in the US on the plea that they were involved in tax fraud, analysts said.

Consequently, UBS and other Swiss private banks are preparing ground to reduce their exposure to offshore banking services in a move to avoid further difficulties for the bank. Other Swiss private bankers too have been discreetly cautioned not to undertake visits in the wake of growing pressure from the G-20 leaders, especially Germany and France, who seem determined to pry open the secret tax havens.

But a representative of the Swiss bankers association said there was no general directive to private bankers in Switzerland, suggesting that it is up to each individual bank to decide their foreign travel.