So much for the famous Swiss bank account – Europe\u2019s major moneymen are ditching their traditional alpine safe haven to put their money in Dubai.<\/b><\/p>\n
That\u2019s according to Swiss banking \u2018trend spotter\u2019 Jean-Luc Freymond,<\/a> who says a combination of tougher Swiss banking laws and the simplicity of operating in the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC)<\/a> is seeing some big-hitters choose to move their money from snow to sand.<\/p>\n \u201cThe current offering of Swiss banks is not what people are looking for and there is a growing and maturing private business,\u201d<\/i> Freymond, CEO of Swiss financial software firm SAGE Group SA, told 7DAYS.<\/a><\/p>\n Switzerland, the world\u2019s largest offshore financial centre, which holds more than $2 trillion worth of global wealth, has always been considered perfect for wealthy clients who value discretion.<\/p>\n However, in 2009, under considerable pressure from tax-paying nations, the country agreed to accept concessions on bank secrecy – saying it would only accept \u2018declared assets\u2019 into Swiss accounts. And according to Freymond, those wanting to legally avoid the taxman are instead choosing to move their money to Dubai.<\/p>\n \u201cContrary to what a lot of (Swiss) banks are saying officially, in reality they are finding different places for clients,\u201d<\/i> the SAGE Group SA boss said.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the most interesting things is that money is now moving from traditional places like Switzerland to the Middle East – and especially Dubai.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n In a trend that is \u201cnew, less than a year old\u201d, Freymond says \u201cbillions\u201d of dollars that would have previously been headed for Switzerland – which is also famous for its clocks – is now safely stored in accounts in the UAE.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s primarily European clients of countries who are signing (declared-asset) agreements with Switzerland. People who have sold their companies, or who are in industry, or also people who are from the entertainment or sports world,\u201d <\/i>he said.<\/p>\n Dubai may well soon be welcoming business from established Asian hubs too, according to Freymond.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople fear Singapore\u2019s going to be next on the (declared-asset) list because it has a very similar profile to Switzerland,\u201d <\/i>he said. And it\u2019s not just money that\u2019s moving from Switzerland to Dubai, according to the SAGE Group SA boss.<\/p>\n \u201cWithin the financial industry bankers – highly trained bankers – are moving from Switzerland to Dubai,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n *This article<\/a> was written by Duncan Hare of 7Days<\/a> on 28th May 2012 in Abu Dhabi\/Dubai (UAE).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" So much for the famous Swiss bank account – Europe\u2019s major moneymen are ditching their traditional alpine safe haven to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.finartis.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2379"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.finartis.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.finartis.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.finartis.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.finartis.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2379"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.finartis.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2379\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4473,"href":"https:\/\/www.finartis.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2379\/revisions\/4473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.finartis.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.finartis.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.finartis.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}