Patrick Odier, senior partner at Geneva's oldest private bank, Lombard Odier Darier Hentsch et Cie, is to replace Pierre Mirabaud as chairman of the Swiss Bankers Association, according to a senior banking source. Mirabaud, senior partner at another long-established Geneva House, Mirabaud et Cie, has chaired the group since September 2003.
But his outspoken style, particularly in dealing with the international row over Swiss banking secrecy and tax laws, has alienated some in the 350-member group. Members are likely to take a decision later this month on the chairmanship, the source said. One question that remains to be settled is whether Mirabaud will stay on for three or six months before handing over to Odier, the source said.
Neither the Swiss Bankers Association nor Lombard Odier would comment. And the association declined to say whether there was a meeting to discuss the issue in the coming weeks. Like Mirabaud, Odier is a vocal defendant of Swiss banking secrecy, arguing it is about the right to privacy rather than nuances between tax fraud and tax evasion.
Switzerland has agreed to negotiate new double taxation agreements with other countries after abandoning its long-held position that it would not help authorities from other states investigate tax evasion, which is not a crime in Switzerland and in which their nationals hide assets in Swiss banks. Switzerland should pass a law specifying in detail in what way the Swiss authorities could assist foreign tax authorities investigating suspected tax fraud, Odier said in an interview published in Saturday's edition of the Swiss daily Le Temps.