Deutsche Bank CEO warns Swiss on bank secrecy -paper
ZURICH Nov 16 (Reuters) - Swiss banking secrecy could come under growing pressure from foreign governments, Deutsche Bank DBKGN.DE chief Josef Ackermann told Swiss Sunday paper NZZ am Sonntag.
"Political pressure will increase from the USA and the EU. Switzerland would be well advised to go on the offensive over this topic," said Ackermann.
"But Switzerland as a financial centre has more to offer than banking secrecy" he added.
Last week, Swiss Finance Minister Hans-Rudolf Merz said a U.S. tax probe into Swiss bank giant UBS (UBSN.VX) would not undermine banking secrecy in Switzerland, which the nation will continue to defend.
On Thursday, U.S. authorities indicted UBS board member and wealth management chief Raoul Weil for helping Americans hide $20 billion form the taxman.
The U.S. Department of Justice had already forced the Swiss bank to hand over data related to U.S. onshore client accounts as part of its investigation into alleged tax fraud by some of its American customers..
In a separate interview with NZZ am Sonntag, Luxembourg's prime minister, Jean-Claude Juncker, said banking secrecy should not be abolished, whether in his country or Switzerland.
"Many EU citizens don't mind paying tax but they don't want want their tax authority to be able to look into their assets," Juncker said.
He also said banking secrecy had nothing to do with the global financial crisis.
"The cause of the financial crisis lies, among other things, in a lack of coordination between financial authorities," said Juncker. "This has to be improved, but I can't imagine a worldwide regulatory authority." (Reporting by Jason Rhodes; Editing by Hans Peters)
