GENEVA (Reuters) – Geneva’s banks and trading houses are worried about the future allure of Switzerland as an international banking center, according to a new survey.
GENEVA (Reuters) – Geneva’s banks and trading houses are worried about the future allure of Switzerland as an international banking center, according to a new survey.
The annual poll conducted by Geneve Place Financiere, an association representing the city’s nearly 6,000 financial firms, painted a darker picture than that normally voiced in Switzerland whose banking secrecy came under attack this year.
“The dominant sentiment coming from this survey on the present and future of the financial center is mitigated, even pessimistic,” said Ivan Pictet, the association’s president.
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Switzerland was not responsible for the crisis that exploded in the United States and over-heated Anglo-Saxon economies as well as Spain, Pictet said. “The Swiss financial center has been the victim.”
The senior partner at Geneva-based Pictet & Cie, one of the biggest private banks in Switzerland, said that while several poll respondents signaled the worst had passed for the banking sector, many expected more trouble and uncertainty ahead.
“The year 2010 should be a year of transition for the banks with more than 200 workers, or even a difficult year,” he said, noting that even smaller respondents in the poll, released on Wednesday, viewed the future with a wary eye.
“No category is optimistic, frankly,” he said.
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