Couchepin hammers home anti-terror message
This year's Swiss president, Pascal Couchepin, has told New York's financial community that Switzerland is doing all it can to fight the financing of terrorism.
He was speaking on Wednesday evening to 300 top business people. On Thursday he rang the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange.
“We are indeed very proud about the considerable progress we have made in dispelling the totally inaccurate view of Switzerland as a country where unscrupulous money launderers can take refuge,” he told his audience at a dinner at the prestigious Metropolitan Club.
He explained that in the immediate aftermath of the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, in the United States, Switzerland was initially in the headlines as a potential safe haven for financial activities of terrorists.
“However, over the past 17 months, we have been able to prove that Swiss banking secrecy has no room for protecting criminal activity of any nature,” Couchepin told his audience.
His remarks were supported by the former senator of Texas, Phil Gramm, now vice chairman of UBS Warburg, the investment arm of the UBS financial services group.
Money laundering
“I don’t think any country in the world has done more to be a leader in the anti money laundering effort than Switzerland,” he told swissinfo.
“The US government is very grateful for what Swiss banks have done in the aftermath of 9-11.
“I also think it’s important to note that one of the things that we have discovered is that there’s no real conflict between fighting money laundering and terrorism on the one hand, and protecting legitimate privacy concerns of clients on the other,” added Gramm, who was formerly head of the Senate banking commission.
Couchepin said Switzerland’s financial sector probably had the world’s most modern and effective legal framework, with extensive preventive as well as prosecution measures.
“Switzerland has become an international showcase on addressing the problem of effectively combating the financing of terrorism,” he said.
“Switzerland is in favour of concerted multilateral efforts aimed at preventing the unlawful use of the world’s financial centres by criminal organisations, he added.
Iraq
Couchepin said he would also use his New York trip to meet high-level representatives of the United Nations to discuss the ongoing process to disarm Iraq of its weapons of mass destruction.
He commented that the Swiss government was entirely in support of the work of the UN inspection team.
“It is the hope of the Swiss [government] that Iraqi authorities will fully comply with the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission,” he said.
“We are in favour of seeking all possible peaceful means before envisaging the use of force… The use of force would need to be granted by a special resolution of the UN Security Council,” he added.
Taxation of savings
On the subject of the taxation of savings held by European Union citizens, Senator Gramm said he was “adamantly opposed” to the system that Europe seemed determined to adopt, a system that would allow a country to follow its citizens’ money into another country and tax it.
“Part of freedom is the ability to move your money and every tyrant in the world is given pause by the threat of his citizens moving their money somewhere else,” he told swissinfo.
“There are clearly some countries in Europe that would like to have uniform tax rates and would like to have a system where they could tax their citizens’ money no matter where it was put.”
“I would see that as a very dangerous assault on freedom. I would be adamantly opposed to it and I do not believe that America will ever support it,” he added.
Couchepin will also use his trip to New York to formally open an eight-week festival in the city devoted to everything Swiss. Called “Swisspeaks”, it features everything from alphorn players to avant-garde theatre, from global investment seminars to cultural exchange programmes.
“I wish New Yorkers during this festival to discover a surprising and unexpected Switzerland,” Couchepin said.
swissinfo, Robert Brookes in New York
Former Texas senator, Phil Gramm, told swissinfo that the US government was grateful to Swiss banks for helping to combat terrorist financing.
He was speaking at a dinner in New York to inform the city’s financial community about the strengths of the Swiss financial centre.
The Swiss president also hammered home the message that Swiss banking secrecy does not protect terrorists and criminals.
Some 300 New York financial professionals took part.
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