With all the talk of the bank bonus tax, global financial institutions’ reassessment of their commitment to London and UK politicians other than Boris Johnson queuing up to bash the City, you might question what place London will have in the financial new world order in 2010. But before you pack your skis and head to Switzerland, the changes since the London G20 Summit and the unstoppable move towards global transparency should make you think again.
As we recently discovered in negotiating the UK/Liechtenstein Disclosure Facility and in advising certain other governments and financial institutions on the exchange of information in tax matters and tax amnesties, the era of clients being able to ‘hide’ their money (whether for legitimate or illegitimate reasons) is over – as is the era of countries or financial institutions being willing to let them do it. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) campaign for the effective exchange of information in tax matters and the eradication of banking secrecy continues to gain impetus, with consideration of amendments to ‘banking secrecy’ laws in Switzerland and Austria and OECD and EU regulations under review.
