Moves by the Swiss government to ease its banking secrecy laws, currently in progress, may prove more challenging than polo.
The Egyptian government also recently demanded that Switzerland's banks disclose all accounts held by the toppled president Hosni Mubarak and his "entourage".
But some take the view that as long as the country enshrines bank secrecy - it is a criminal offence for Swiss citizens to reveal bank details - it acts as an enabler of illicit transfers of cash. Egypt lost US$57.2 billion (Dh210.1bn) to illicit capital flight between 2000 and 2008, according to Global Financial Integrity, an advocacy group based in Washington that monitors transfers of illegal funds.
The rapid collapse of dictatorships in Egypt and Tunisia, and the spread of sanctions to Libya, has left banks in a tricky position as they try to deflect public outrage.Some are more cynical about the Swiss government's zeal in hunting illicit assets.
"This doesn't mean that there's a big crackdown under way," says Nicholas Shaxson, the author of Treasure Islands: Tax Havens and the Men Who Stole the World. "Countries need to be seen to be doing something."
On this subject, Dr Thomas Meier, the Middle East and Asia chief executive for the Swiss private bank Julius Baer, is blunt: "If someone ”¦ accumulates illegitimate money, you shouldn't take it. That's what it is."
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The Egyptian government also recently demanded that Switzerland's banks disclose all accounts held by the toppled president Hosni Mubarak and his "entourage".
But some take the view that as long as the country enshrines bank secrecy - it is a criminal offence for Swiss citizens to reveal bank details - it acts as an enabler of illicit transfers of cash. Egypt lost US$57.2 billion (Dh210.1bn) to illicit capital flight between 2000 and 2008, according to Global Financial Integrity, an advocacy group based in Washington that monitors transfers of illegal funds.
The rapid collapse of dictatorships in Egypt and Tunisia, and the spread of sanctions to Libya, has left banks in a tricky position as they try to deflect public outrage.Some are more cynical about the Swiss government's zeal in hunting illicit assets.
"This doesn't mean that there's a big crackdown under way," says Nicholas Shaxson, the author of Treasure Islands: Tax Havens and the Men Who Stole the World. "Countries need to be seen to be doing something."
On this subject, Dr Thomas Meier, the Middle East and Asia chief executive for the Swiss private bank Julius Baer, is blunt: "If someone ”¦ accumulates illegitimate money, you shouldn't take it. That's what it is."
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