Swiss banks see optimism plunge amid tighter rules

Jan 10, 2012, 14:29 GMT

Zurich/Vienna - Switzerland's banks have grown more pessimistic about their business, as regulations on banking secrecy and taxes are getting tougher, according to a poll published Tuesday by consultancy Ernst & Young in Zurich.

Only 15 per cent of the surveyed banks said last month that the current business situation was positive, compared to 52 per cent a year earlier.

Looking to the future, 71 per cent of the lenders were optimistic about business performance for 2012, down from 92 per cent.

Banks were worried about low interest rates and about alienating clients with new regulations.

Most banks do not think that new taxation agreements with Britain and Germany - which would make it easier for those countries to levy taxes on their citizens' holdings in Switzerland - or recently weakened banking secrecy rules will have a positive impact on their business.

Financial institutions do not fear so much that foreigners will park their savings elsewhere, but rather that the implementation of new regulations will eat into their earnings and will curb their clients' appetite for new business, the study showed.

The European Commission has asked London and Berlin to renegotiate treaties with Switzerland agreed upon in August and September, arguing that they run counter to EU law.

Some 47 billion of the 2.05 trillion Swiss francs (2.2 billion dollars) that banks manage for foreign clients will likely leave the country because of these treaties, consultancy Booz & Company said late last year.

Ernst & Young polled 120 regional and private and foreign-owned banks. The two major Swiss lenders, UBS and Credit Suisse, were not included.