UBS tax deal is Swiss bank secrecy's Waterloo

[tex-wyo-dem]

Source: Reuters

ZURICH (Reuters) - UBS's landmark settlement deal with U.S. tax authorities could be the final nail in the coffin for Switzerland's prized bank secrecy and will have far-reaching consequences for the whole offshore financial industry.

Under pressure from Washington, Berne agreed to let UBS pass on data of certain U.S. clients without waiting for an ongoing appeal process against the data transfer by some of these clients, an unprecedented step in Switzerland.

Switzerland's leading newspaper, Neue Zuercher Zeitung, called the $780 million settlement, which UBS agreed with Berne's blessing, a "capitulation."

"For Switzerland, it is a true catastrophe for the country's first industry, that is to say the banking sector," Geneva lawyer Charles Poncet, a former member of the Swiss parliament, told Radio Suisse Romande.

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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE51I1ZP20090219

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Related post: UBS to identify customers, pay $780 million (unindicted co-conspirators) http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3745771

[DemoTex]

1. So, if Phil Gramm is Napoleon ..

.. who is Wellington?

[tex-wyo-dem]

2. Good question....

My feeling is that a lot of snakes are about to get exposed to the light of day once this rock gets overturned...and this is one BIG rock!

[dipsydoodle]

3. Whatever

its a good excuse to listen to Bonaparte's Retreat which is alleged to be what the Scot's pipers played at Waterloo as French retreated. it's the classic one with "the Boney part".... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yeQucos9-M&feature=related

[happyslug]

4. Who care who is Wellington, who is Blücher?

Wellington's plan at Waterloo was simple, block any French advance till Blücher and his Prussians shows up and hit the French in the flank. Napoleon's plan was to destroy Wellington and then Blücher. Napoleon knew he could NOT defeat both, he had to defeat them one after another. Thus the key ot the battle was how fast Blücher could move his army to aid Wellington.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Waterloo

If Phil Gramm is Napoleon, the thing that stopped Phil Gram "reforms" was Sub Prime Mortgages (i.e. Sub-prime Mortgages was Wellington). The big question is who is going to solve this problem, that would be the Blucher in this fight.

One last comment, while Waterloo was Napoleon's last battle, it was NOT the largest battle, that belongs to the Battle of Leipzig in 1813 (Also called the Battle of Nations, the largest land battle before WWI).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Leipzig

[sutz12]

5. Good.

For all of its alpine beauty, Switzerland probably has more dirty money per capita than any place in the world.

Time to turn over this rock and root out the snakes and bugs.