Why do people keep their money in swiss banks?
Swiss banks are safer and more secure than American banks. Swiss banks have not failed in who-knows-how-long, certainly not even during the Depression. The US uses fractional reserves, which means only a small percantage of your money deposited there is actually “in the bank.” US banks fail, Swiss banks do not. The bankers are far more knowledgeable and sophisticated than American retail bankers. Swiss banking is not like going to your corner BofA. They are required to have far more experience, education, invesstment knowledge, etc. than the clerk at a desk in the neighborhood bank. US banks and stockbrokerages and investment counselors are all separate, by law. Swiss bankers are all 3. Swiss banks are more like US banks’ “high net worth individuals” divisions, except you do not need anywhere near as much money for such services from the Swiss as you do from US banks’ HNWI divisions. If you do business internationally, US banks are slow, unsophisticated, wrapped in red tape, and hardly
Every bank in the UK and US provide the government with all their clients details (on request, and with due reason), it can include full details of all payments received and sent, balances etc etc. Switzerland has the strictest privacy laws the world over, and no government (even their own) has a right of access to the information and funds associated to any person. There are of course exclusions, but these are extreme and difficult for the relevant authority to prove to the bank in question. It is no longer the mark of the rich, and is something many people have as a good safety net.
