Prominent Jewish leader welcomes Volcker report findings

A prominent leader of Switzerland’s Jewish community, Sigi Feigel, welcomed the report of the Volcker committee, saying it clearly highlights the banks’ “incorrectness” during the Holocaust era.

A prominent leader of Switzerland’s Jewish community, Sigi Feigel, welcomed the report of the Volcker committee, saying it clearly highlights the banks’ “incorrectness” during the Holocaust era.

But Feigel also praised the banks’ cooperation in the probe for dormant accounts, noting that the institutions had clearly changed their attitude.

The report was compiled by the Independent Committee of Eminent Persons and notes that banks handling funds during World War II were often “grossly insensitive to the special conditions of the Holocaust and sometimes misleading in intent and unfair in result.”

Feigel criticised that assessment and said it was playing down the harshness of the attitudes at the time.

“I think that (the banks’ behaviour) was based on anti-semitism and sheer hunger for money,” he said.

But he also stated that the situation today was fundamentally different from what it was then.

He said the bank’s cooperation with international auditors had clearly shown that the financial institutions were fully aware of their historic responsibility in finding the truth about the dormant accounts.

Feigel said this was not only a mark of moral integrity for the banks but also for Switzerland as a whole.

From staff and wire reports.