Non-motoring > Swiss bank a/c for mortal souls Legal Questions
Thread Author: movilogo Replies: 16
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New Tue 13 May 14 09:56 
 Swiss bank a/c for mortal souls - movilogo
With all the recent stories about HMRC stealing money directly from accounts and an imminent Cypriot style haircut (well, may be a scaremongering anyway), I was wondering whether mortal souls (i.e. not millionaires or richer) can have any protection at all if they keep some money (in order of thousands of pounds rather than hundreds of thousands pounds for example) in Swiss bank - whether it is a good thing or not.

AFAIK, Swiss Franc is still backed by gold and they still honor secrecy of account holders (unless someone is doing something seriously wrong like drug trafficking or terrorism etc.)


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New Tue 13 May 14 10:10 
 Swiss bank a/c for mortal souls - madf
The UK's depositor protection scheme of £75k protects investors from losing money.. err... :-)
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New Tue 13 May 14 10:33 
 Swiss bank a/c for mortal souls - movilogo
That amount can be changed by govt. anytime. Also, same bank often trade under different trading names and such protection scheme only applies to parent banks as a whole.

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New Tue 13 May 14 11:04 
 Swiss bank a/c for mortal souls - CGNorwich
It's £85,000
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New Tue 13 May 14 11:10 
 Swiss bank a/c for mortal souls - Enoughalready
Isn't www.nsandi.com/ unlimited?
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New Tue 13 May 14 11:23 
 Swiss bank a/c for mortal souls - CGNorwich
Not really the same thing and technically the answer I suppose is thats its not protected at all. since you are lending to the government.

Your money is "safe" unless the government decides to default on repayment or change the terms at which it was lent. Not entirely without precedent. In 1932 the UK government imposed a "voluntary" reduction on the interest rate on War Loan form 5% to 3% .

There is absolutely no completely safe way of keeping money.
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New Tue 13 May 14 11:33 
 Swiss bank a/c for mortal souls - Cliff Pope
>> Isn't www.nsandi.com/ unlimited?
>>


It's completely safe until HMRC decide to seize it, or a future government imposes a wealth tax.
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New Tue 13 May 14 13:41 
 Swiss bank a/c for mortal souls - Roger.
Governments would love to abolish cash!
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New Tue 13 May 14 17:34 
 Swiss bank a/c for mortal souls - CGNorwich
It is surprisingly difficult to withdraw a large sum of cash from your bank account and even harder to buy anything with it (apart from drugs of course).
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New Tue 13 May 14 17:55 
 Swiss bank a/c for mortal souls - No FM2R
>It is surprisingly difficult to withdraw a large sum of cash

Only for the law-anding, ordinary people doing an unusual thing.

For the law breakers, drug dealers, terrorists and the like, they plan for it and it makes no difference to them at all.
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New Tue 13 May 14 18:02 
 Swiss bank a/c for mortal souls - Armel Coussine

>> For the law breakers, drug dealers, terrorists and the like, they plan for it

Lots of people carry big wads of cash. Bookies, small businessmen, car dealers, probably all quite often holding thousands.

Drug dealers and terrorists indeed! (Although them too I suppose...)
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New Thu 15 May 14 13:13 
 Swiss bank a/c for mortal souls - MD
I don't pay for drugs. Exemption you see!
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New Tue 13 May 14 21:58 
 Swiss bank a/c for mortal souls - Mike H
>> AFAIK, Swiss Franc is still backed by gold and they still honor secrecy of account
>> holders (unless someone is doing something seriously wrong like drug trafficking or terrorism etc.)
>>
Don't know about the gold, but AFAIK the secrecy isn't what it used to be.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banking_in_Switzerland

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New Tue 13 May 14 22:12 
 Swiss bank a/c for mortal souls - CGNorwich
Swiss Franc link to gold was terminated in 2000.
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New Wed 14 May 14 08:52 
 Swiss bank a/c for mortal souls - movilogo
That is an interesting comment in Wikipedia page

In October 2013, the Swiss government stated that it intended to sign an international agreement sponsored by the OECD that, if ratified by Parliament, will align Swiss bank practices with those of other countries and in effect end the special secrecy that clients of Swiss banks had enjoyed in the past.

I wonder why Swiss parliament are considering it which may lead to losing of their unique selling point. If this happens, then Swiss banks will lose their main charm.


Last edited by: movilogo on Wed 14 May 14 at 08:52
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New Wed 14 May 14 08:59 
 Swiss bank a/c for mortal souls - CGNorwich
If this happens, then Swiss banks will lose their main charm.

Only if you are a criminal. Swizerland, I suspect would soon be seen as a place of financial stability and security rather than a hiding place for illicit gains. It is of course under huge international pressure to comply with international law.
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New Wed 14 May 14 09:13 
 Swiss bank a/c for mortal souls - movilogo
Sometimes definition of criminal is subjective. E.g. if you drive @ 35 MPH in 30 limit you are a criminal :)

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