Singapore should expect tougher international scrutiny of its banking secrecy rules, as the Asian city-state continues to expand its wealth management and private banking businesses, said the chief executive of the Swiss Bankers Association. Comparing Switzerland and Singapore, Urs Roth said Singaporean banking secrecy provisions “are probably even stronger than the ones in Switzerland”. Banks in Singapore have 10 to 15% of the asset base of their Swiss counterparts. However, Switzerland has recently come under renewed attack over its banking secrecy following a German tax investigation that involved accounts in neighbouring Liechtenstein. Roth stressed that he was not concerned, at this stage, that Switzerland would lose business to Singapore. Overall, he suggested, the focus of banks on wealth management was likely to rise as other activities took a bigger hit.

This entry was posted by Gwen Robinson on Thursday, November 27th, 2008 at 5:31 and is filed under Capital markets, People. Tagged with singapore, switzerland. Edit this entry.