The international media make massive allegations about Credit Suisse. There are signs it is a concerted effort to discredit all of Swiss finance.
Credit Suisse is in poor shape. The Archegos and Greensill scandals and other legal cases are having a significant impact on the institute. Switzerland's second-largest bank's reputation has been hit and it has not managed to provide any kind of business perspective for investors.
Now, in the middle of all this, new allegations surface. They have enormous consequences as they question one of the most important pillars of Swiss finance. Banking secrecy.
Safe Haven
For decades, Credit Suisse apparently managed criminals, corrupt government heads and their bureaucrats as clients. The basis for these serious accusations is a data leak that was provided to an international network of journalists and at least 46 other international media, including the left-leaning «Le Monde», «The Guardian», the «Süddeutsche Zeitung» and the «Miami Herald».
Ostensibly, Credit Suisse was a «safe haven» for dubious business and money starting in the 1940s until relatively recently.
Extremely Delicate - and Questionable
It has been accused of having, as clients, Kazakhstan's former president Nursultan Nasarbajew and his family, Abdullah II., King of Jordan, and Nervis Villalobos, Venezuela's former vice-minister of energy. As well as numerous human traffickers and cocaine dealers. The allegations are extremely delicate and questionable. The bank has been working to come to terms with its past in numerous ways. Swiss laws for corruption and money laundering have been completely overhauled and significantly strengthened. This does not mean that Credit Suisse always acted properly at all times.
But the orchestrated attack seems unusual. It seems to be serving up old cliches and it is coming at a time when the bank is in severe difficulty. It is also coming from abroad, where Swiss banking secrecy is interpreted as an institutional tool to engage in doubtful business with criminal money.
Partial, Inaccurate, Out of Context
Credit Suisse strongly rejected the allegations in a statement Sunday. According to them, the matters are predominantly historical and based on partial, inaccurate and selective information taken out of context, leading to a biased interpretation of the bank's conduct.
Credit Suisse reviewed a large number of related accounts following numerous queries by the media consortium in the past three weeks. About 90 percent of those were already closed or were in the process of being exited, and over 60 percent of them had been terminated before 2015.
Managing the Pandemic
«Of the remaining active accounts, we are comfortable that appropriate due diligence, reviews and other control-related steps were taken in line with our current framework. We will continue to analyze the matters and take additional steps if necessary,» Credit Suisse said in its statement.
The impression these new accusations give is that they are a concerted attempt to not only discredit Credit Suisse, but all of Swiss finance. This comes at a time when Switzerland successfully managed COVID-19 with a relatively liberal policy, particularly in comparison to many European countries while the country's financial hub itself prospered – excepting Credit Suisse.
Improvements Ignored
The foreign attacks seem to regularly ignore Switzerland's progress in terms of preventing money laundering and fighting financial crime. Instead, they continue to portray it in a very outdated, simplistic light.
Banking secrecy as the critics define it has not existed since the introduction of the Automatic Exchange of Information (AIA) in 2017, which Switzerland now practices with over 100 countries. There is also a certain irony that the U.S. itself does not participate in the AIA but instead has its own framework with the FATCA act. As it is usually certain US circles that seem to finance and be the source of these kinds of leaks.
Global Marketing Offensive Needed
Against this background, this newest broadside has to be taken seriously in that Credit Suisse is currently the weakest link in Swiss finance. It is also a brazen attack on a time-tested, proven, and capable Swiss financial industry. And it would be interesting to compare how, if at all, other international financial hubs and centers have dealt with their past.
In view of the accusations, it is high time that Switzerland and its banks would start something that has been called for unsuccessfully many times in the past. A global marketing offensive that puts things right.
