Survival time for Swiss Banks

Times are tough in the home of the cuckoo clock: inflows of cash are flat after the UBS and Swiss government agreed in March to disclose thousands of US clients to avoid the wrath of the US government. Feeling the squeeze after the world-wide onslaught on tax havens started emerging, threatening their very survival, the Swiss Bankers Association proposed, wait for it, withholding tax on all earnings generated by their EU-based clients. Tax would be calculated by the bankers themselves and then paid to the clients’ home countries. All of it, naturally, without revealing the clients’ details. Presumably, the recipient countries would be grateful for the revenue and would truly and totally believe in the accuracy and honesty of Swiss Banks. For which, of course, many centuries of Swiss Banking system transparency, decency and honesty vouch.