Swiss banks uncertain, worried about future: survey

Geneva's banks and trading houses are worried about the future allure of Switzerland as an international banking centre, according to a new survey. The annual poll conducted by Geneve Place Financiere, an association representing the city's nearly 6,000 financial firms, painted a darker picture than that normally voiced in Switzerland whose banking secrecy came under attack this year.
"The dominant sentiment coming from this survey on the present and future of the financial centre is mitigated, even pessimistic," said Ivan Pictet, the association's president. Switzerland was not responsible for the crisis that exploded in the United States and over-heated Anglo-Saxon economies as well as Spain, Pictet said. "The Swiss financial centre has been the victim."
The senior partner at Geneva-based Pictet & Cie, one of the biggest private banks in Switzerland, said that while several poll respondents signalled the worst had passed for the banking sector, many expected more trouble and uncertainty ahead.
"The year 2010 should be a year of transition for the banks with more than 200 workers, or even a difficult year," he said, noting that even smaller respondents in the poll, released on Wednesday, viewed the future with a wary eye. "No category is optimistic, frankly," he said. Swiss banking executives have in recent months insisted that they would remain leaders in wealth management because of their expertise and stability, even after the global clampdown that reduced the country's tax haven appeal.
Pictet said that Geneva banks kept attracting new European and Middle Eastern funds in the first half of 2009 "in spite of the violent attacks from abroad in which it was targeted," a reference to US and G20 pressure on taxes and secrecy. But he signalled landmark changes the Swiss government has agreed to in tax co-operation and the exchange of information were likely to have significant effects on the allure of the country's banks in the years to come.
"In the longer term, the attractiveness of the Swiss financial centre has clearly decreased for European and North American clients. However, Switzerland remains attractive for the Middle East and to a lesser extent Russia," he said. Switzerland is still the world's biggest offshore financial centre with $1.8 trillion in assets under management in 2008, according a recent report by the Boston Consulting Group.