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Two
Geneva-based banks that have kept their finance sheets shrouded in secrecy
since 1796 will publish their earnings amid pressure from abroad.
Lomard
Odier and Pictet, two of Switzerland’s largest independent private banks, will
report financials in August, Bloomberg News reports, citing a source from
Odier.
Lombard
Odier, Geneva’s oldest wealth management firm, will report August 28, with
Pictet also due to report by the end of the month.
Together
the banks oversee about US$630 billion in asset management, both private and
institutional, according to Bloomberg.
Pichet
is under investigation by the US Justice Department, along with a dozen other
Swiss banks for helping Americans dodge taxes. Lombard Odier has voluntarily
agreed to swap information with US authorities.
After
much delay, last year Switzerland, the world’s largest offshore wealth center, signed
an agreement to share financial data with tax authorities in the US and Europe.
In
October 2013 a convention with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development (OECD) and agreed to exchange data with 60 member countries,
including neighbors Germany and France looking to track down tax evaders.
The
US has an especially tumultuous relationship with Switzerland over tax evasion,
and has threatened billions in claims if the country didn’t make banking more
transparent.
Switzerland’s
oldest private bank, Wegelin & Co., shut its doors after it pled guilty to
helping Americans hide more than US$1.2 billion from the International Revenue
Service (IRS).
In
February 2014, Credit Suisse was accused by the US Senate of storing more than
12 billion Swiss francs for more than 22,000 American clients.
Pressure reached a peak in
2009 when Switzerland’s biggest lender UBS admitted to helping 52,000 American
clients evade taxes.
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