Nataly Kambur
At this point, we know that Credit Suisse, a major bank, has recently found itself in a very peculiar situation in the USA. What's wrong with Credit Suisse and how may it affect Forex traders?
In particular, not so long ago it was revealed that some bankers working for Credit Suisse helped some wealthy US clients to conceal assets (billions of dollars), therefore helping them evade taxes. The US tax service started an investigation to find out that over 22 000 bank accounts opened with Credit Suisse belong to US citizens. The total amount of funds on those accounts exceeds 12 billion dollars. The thing is that those accounts wasn’t registered with the US tax service. Both the bankers and the clients used many sophisticated schemes, and tricks to transfer the money to the Swiss bank without reporting to the US tax service.
At the same time, the Swiss bank abstains from denying their guilt. Still, most likely, only a few bankers (who were directly involved in the process) will be found guilty. At the same time, the top managers of Credit Suisse assure that this isn’t the bank’s policy. It is rather the initiative of those bankers working for Credit Suisse that actually implemented the scheme.
It should be noted that Credit Suisse isn’t the first such banks to help its wealthy clients hide their money from the US tax service. This is not the first (and probably the last) time US citizens are trying to hide their money in foreign banks. Previously, UBS, another major bank was caught doing the same thing and finally was fined some 780 million dollars for that.
At the same time, Credit Suisse won’t reveal the entire list of US clients. At this point, only the names of over 238 clients are known. Meanwhile, it is reported that Credit Suisse is currently offering the US authorities 800 million dollars to hush up the scandal and to close the investigation Still, the authorities are unlikely to accept the deal since 73 of those account holders are accused of tax evasion and are likely to face huge fines (they say, up to $6bn)!
As far as Forex is concerned, the shocking news still hasn’t caused any major price changes. Still, this may affect Switzerland’s image, banking system and national currency in the long run.
At the same time, the stock of Credit Suisse obviously dropped in value after such negative news. Instantly after the release, the stock lost 2,5% to touch 30,71:
Nataly Kambur
