"I assume that we will have to live with significant outflows of wealth for quite a long time yet"
- Juerg Zeltner, head of UBS wealth management
UBS expects Swiss banks to see European clients withdraw up to 200 billion francs by 2016 of the 789 billion as a result of measures to stop foreigners using secret accounts to evade taxes. Switzerland is to impose taxes on German, British and Austrian citizens' accounts.
"As a consequence of the realignment of the financial centre and the planned withholding tax, we assume that a total of hundreds of billions of francs will flow out of Switzerland," said Juerg Zeltner, head of UBS wealth management.
"In the offshore business with European customers, I assume that we will have to live with significant outflows of wealth for quite a long time yet."
The Swiss blue-chip index SMI, a measure of the largest and most actively traded companies edged higher 0.36 per cent to 6,513.22. The broader Swiss Performance Index climbed 0.36 per cent to 6,038.72.
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