Towards the end of 2014, the Federal Council initiated a consultation on its proposal for reforming the withholding tax, which would all but abolish this tax for non-residents while considerably broadening its scope for Swiss residents. The Association of Swiss Private Banks (ASPB) supports the first objective, but considers the second overly complicated and potentially unnecessary.
Yves Mirabaud, Senior Partner of Mirabaud SCA, has been named Chairman of the Association of Swiss Private Banks. The ASPB expects to benefit greatly from the experience and support of this energetic and forward-looking individual.
The OECD and the G20 have decided to encourage the automatic exchange of information (AEI) to combat tax evasion worldwide. On 19 November 2014, Switzerland became the 52nd nation to sign the Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement (MCAA), which defines the principles of AEI. Consultation regarding the ratification of the agreement and the draft federal law for implementation ends on 21 April 2015. The central question for Swiss private banks is: to whom will Switzerland grant AEI?
On 1 July 2015, Jan Langlo will become the new director of the Association of Swiss Private Banks (ASPB). He joined the ASPB in January 2014 as deputy director. Since then, he has focused on defending the interests of banks specialising in wealth management. The ASPB is delighted to benefit from Jan Langlo’s extensive experience of fiscal and banking policy matters, which he has followed closely for the past several years at the national level, as well as his in-depth knowledge of the issues that most directly affect the ASPB and its members. He will replace the outgoing director Michel Dérobert, who will retire at the end of the year, after 25 years of tireless efforts on behalf of private banks. The ASPB thanks him warmly for his service.
The future of wealth management in Switzerland came under the spotlight at the first Private Banking Day. As a largely export-led business, private banking is reliant on the access to the European single market and the flexible recruitment of qualified specialists also from abroad and, in particular, the EU. Invites to the Private Banking Day in Geneva were issued jointly by the Association of Swiss Private Banks (ASPB) and the Association of Swiss Asset and Wealth Management Banks (VAV-ABG). The event was attended by renowned exponents from the worlds of private banking, science, politics and administration.
On 5 September 2016, the consultation on the direct counterproject to the initiative “Yes to the protection of privacy” came to an end. The Association of Swiss Private Banks (ASPB) takes position neither for nor against the counterproject, in the belief that it is not the banks who should express their opinion but rather the citizens and taxpayers of this country, to whom banking secrecy belongs.
At their joint press conference today, the Association of Swiss Private Banks (ASPB) and the Association of Swiss Asset and Wealth Management Banks (VAV) have outlined how the Swiss financial centre must prepare the future. In particular, the question of market access remains crucial for the banks. And in order to enable the sector to continue its successful operations, three current topics are of vital importance : the approval of CTR III, stable relations with the EU and the rapid implementation of the FinSA/FinIA package.
Since 1 January 2017, banks have been collecting tax information for 38 countries. The government proposes to add another 41 next year, in keeping with Switzerland’s commitments. However, the authorisation to be issued by Parliament does not exempt the government from verifying the existence of a level playing field and data confidentiality before information is exchanged in September 2019.