Page 48 - Ekonomija i Biznis_noemvri 2015.indd

BANKING

US and European deposits from Swiss
banks, in 2014 Switzerland managed
to maintain the primacy of the largest
offshore center with assets equal to
approximately 2.4 trillion US dollars.
This is primarily due to the expertise
of Swiss banks and the ability of part
of the US and European money to be
replaced with deposits coming from
developing countries, especially Asia,
where natural persons and companies
may be less motivated by tax evasion,
but they simply seek for a safe place for
their money. However, outflows of de-
posits, especially of entities from the
European Union are significant. Ac-
cording to an analysis of the consulting
company PwC, as a result of the volun-
tary programs of reporting untaxed
funds introduced in several European
countries, between 350 and 400 billion
Swiss francs were withdrawn from
Swiss banks in recent years, and it is
expected that until the start of the im-
plementation of the OECD Agreement

Switzerland has already signed bilateral agreements

with a number of countries on the basis of which it shares

information on the deposits of citizens of these countries

upon request of their tax authorities. This gradually

started to melt the so-called value added of Swiss banks

and global banks with their branches in Switzerland

dealing with private banking

for automatic reporting there will be By accepting the OECD Agreement
an additional outflow of around 100 and by signing the agreement between
billion Swiss francs. Cleaning the bal- Switzerland and the European Union,
ances from unreported deposits was based on the principles of the OECD/
not an easy task for the Swiss banks, G20, Switzerland, just like the other
given their high share. Currently the countries which signed the Agreement,
situation could be illustrated with the undertakes to collect and exchange in-
example of the deposits of German en- formation about the owners of bank
tities in Switzerland. According to the accounts, beneficial owners of com-
Swiss Banking Association it is esti- panies and trusts. The global standard
mated that 95% have already been re- for data exchange was developed by the
ported to the tax authorities, and by OECD and endorsed by the G20 Mem-
the end of 2015 they are expected to be ber States. In accordance with this sys-
fully reported. tem, banks are required to collect data

48 November 2015