A view from the Alps

Swiss private banks seem to be losing their mojo. Gone are the days where one could open a bank account in Zurich or Geneva and sit back, relax and enjoy the returns. Now you worry your home country will bite into your yields. Switzerland’s oldest private bank, Wegelin, fell prey to the United States’ tax-evasion squeeze in February; it was charged with helping wealthy Americans hide a whopping $1.2 billion in offshore bank accounts. “Wegelin was a very special case,” says Jacques de Saussure, senior partner at Pictet & Cie, the third largest private bank in Switzerland with more than $360 billion of assets, in an interview with Executive. “As a consequence of the recent regulatory changes, undeclared US assets in Swiss banks must be very small, and probably much more limited than in other countries. As a result, Swiss banks are probably much better prepared to deal with FATCA