Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss government is not likely to introduce a special tax on Swiss banks, the Swiss Federal Department of Finance (FDF) says. It has taken note of US President Barack Obama’s intention to introduce a special levy on the 50 largest financial institutions in the USA in order to recover some $90 billion over 10 years, but it says that Switzerland’s financial system bore up well during the crisis and no public funds were lost.
The Swiss central bank actually made a profit of CHF 1.2 billion on its investment in UBS stock, the FDF said in a press release 15 January.
The US government is urging coordination among major financial centres on this subject. Both UBS and Credit Suisse potentially fall under the proposed US legislation, and risk having to pay substantially more to the US taxman, according to Le Temps 16 January.
Links to other sites: The Economist, Le Temps, NZZ
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News story, GenevaLunch, 18 January 2010.
Filed under: Business
Tags: Barack Obama, Credit Suisse, financial crisis, special tax, Swiss Federal Department of Finance, Swiss National Bank, UBS
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