But who will take our money to finance the mortgage?
Update 25 July 07:20 Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Two well-known Swiss cooperative banks, Migros and Bank Raiffeisen, have made changes in recent weeks to their policies concerning customers who are US citizens, or who are resident in the US. Specifically, both banks refuse all contact from the US. The steps taken by the banks, who are best known for mortgages and retail banking to middle-class customers, are a clear indication that US pressure is having an impact on the Swiss banking system. The moves are part of a trend that saw UBS in July 2008 alert non-US citizens who were resident in the US that their accounts would be closed as it reduced its US business.
Ironically, it is Americans trying to lead normal lives and pay their bills through their banks who are most affected – not the infamously wealthy and stealthy people the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is hunting down. Also affected: Swiss citizens living in the US and people of other nationalities who have at some point lived in both countries. These are not the mythical secret, numbered accounts made famous by the likes of James Bond, but typical Swiss bank accounts covered by data protection laws in Switzerland.
The problem is complicated for US citizens and residents living outside the US because, according to American Citizens Abroad, a Geneva-based group, US banks are increasingly applying “due diligence” rules to refuse banking services outside the country.
