UBS Shares dropped 15%

As UBS AG shares plunged more than 15 percent Friday amid concern over an ongoing tax evasion case in the United States, commentators in Switzerland voiced their anger at the bank’s business practices and what they saw as heavy-handed treatment by U.S. authorities.
News from Thursday that UBS and Swiss authorities agreed to give Washington the names of 250 to 300 suspected tax cheats raised fears that the country could lose the prosperity born of lucrative banking secrecy.
Some felt it was a show of muscle by the new U.S. administration, although the investigation began under the previous administration of President George W. Bush.
“Yes we can — finish you off!” was the headline in mass circulation daily Blick beneath a cartoon showing U.S. President Barack Obama preparing to blow open a Swiss bank safe.
“If you give the U.S. authorities a little finger, they’ll take your whole hand,” said economic editor Marco Metzler of daily Neue Zuercher Zeitung.
As UBS shares fell to a new low of 10.54 Swiss francs on the Zurich exchange, Oskar Freysinger, a lawmaker with the nationalist Swiss People’s Party, said recent events had left him shocked and upset.
“This is now about the financial survival of our country,” he told The Associated Press. “UBS not only damaged itself, but the whole country is suffering from it now.”
“Without banking secrecy, we would have a million people unemployed over the next years,” Mr. Freysinger said. “People cannot imagine how much depends on the banking secrecy and what it means for Switzerland’s welfare.”
Commuter newspaper 20 Minuten, based in the Swiss financial capital Zurich, said it was bombarded with e-mails from concerned readers after news of the deal between UBS and Washington broke.
“The fear is that without banking secrecy Switzerland will soon be a poor agricultural nation,” the paper said.
U.S. authorities announced late Thursday that having secured the unprecedented handover of some UBS files, along with a $780 million fine for the bank and an admission of guilt from its chairman, they now want it to give up a further 52,000 names of American customers suspected of tax evasion.
UBS said it will “vigorously contest” the allegations.
The Green Party said UBS’ banking practices were criminal and the case showed that banking secrecy should be abolished.
“Switzerland has admitted the weakness of its position,” Geneva daily Le Temps said in an editorial Friday, predicting the country would now face increasing pressure from the European Union as well.
Those fears were echoed by Zurich’s Tages Anzeiger, which warned against believing the Swiss cabinet’s claim that the decision to hand over files to the Washington was a one-off event.
“Don’t you believe it,” wrote commentator Bruno Schletti. “The EU is already at the door demanding equal treatment.”
Germany, France and Britain want tough action against all offshore tax havens following last year’s revelations that hundreds of rich Europeans had been stashing money away in the tiny Alpine principality of Liechtenstein, which has similar banking rules to Switzerland.
German Finance Minister Peer Steinbruck has said Switzerland should be on a new list of countries which encourage tax fraud.
Carlo Lombardini, a lawyer and expert in banking law, said the latest blow to Switzerland’s banking secrecy was the result of years of sustained attacks.
“The problem is that it doesn’t help to blame Switzerland if you don’t do anything about other countries, such as Hong Kong or Singapore,” he told The AP. “You don’t fix the problem if you abolish banking secrecy here, but keep it elsewhere.”
Mr. Lombardini said if the Swiss were courageous enough to stand up to other countries, they could hold on to banking secrecy.
“We have to get used to not necessarily being loved by other countries,” he said. “Other financial centers don’t collaborate in tax matters. This collaboration between countries on tax issues is very recent and I’m not convinced it will last long because of the financial crisis.”
Analysts said the latest episode showed how dangerous it is for companies to appear to be breaking the law during a period of economic turmoil.
“Regardless of the rights and wrongs of this case, even the perceived notion of any impropriety raises reputational consequences and brings on what I see as an unnecessarily drag on the business,” said Cubillas Ding of financial research firm Celent.
“Increasingly, firms need to be seen to be staying within the spirit of the law,” he said. “Adhering to the letter of the law and adopting a checkbox approach is no longer sufficient.”
Meanwhile, a sculpture in front of UBS’s ancestral home in the Swiss village of Lichtensteig has taken on a new meaning.
The 6.5-foot (2-meter) statue dubbed “Lost Shadow” shows a naked man scared to step into the light.
The sculpture drew criticism when it was unveiled in 1992 — 80 years after the Toggenburger Bank and the Bank of Winterthur combined to form the Union Bank of Switzerland, a predecessor of UBS.
Petitioners succeeded in having the statue moved and turned around, so that it’s nudity would not insult the citizens of Lichtensteig.
“Like this man of stone, the bank now has to step into the light,” says sculptor Stefan Kreier.

Related Topics: UBS AG