The Federal Department of Finance (FDF) has taken note of the US proposal on introducing a special tax on the largest financial institutions. It will analyse the draft legislation from the US Department of the Treasury as soon as this is available

The USA is proposing a so-called Financial Crisis Responsibility Fee, the purpose of which is to recover state funds allocated in assisting financial institutions. The US Department of the Treasury has urged the need for coordination between the most important financial centres and has approached the FDF with this concern.
The FDF has taken note of the US proposal and will analyse the details as soon as the draft legislation is available. This has yet to be approved by the US Congress.
In contrast to the US, there were no losses in Switzerland for the Confederation resulting from its investment in UBS. In fact its holding was able to be sold making a profit of CHF 1.2 billion. Up to now, the Swiss National Bank (SNB) has also not suffered any uncovered losses on its loan to the StabFund. In addition the resources utilised for the economic stabilisation measures remained within the scope of the debt brake. For fiscal reasons this is why a tax of this nature is not required in Switzerland.
The USA is also planning to introduce a special tax with regard to cushioning in the “too big to fail” issue. On this point, the Federal Council appointed an expert committee in November 2009.
It still remains to be seen what impact the US special tax will have on the big Swiss banks with subsidiaries in the USA. (c) FDF
Useful link: Federal Department of Finance (FDF)

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