Switzerland is the next Iceland

[Turion]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/bu...nd-964325.html

Who would think that, but it's possible as there are great similarities. If you've got money stashed there, you'd better pull it out quickly as you're unlikely to get the help that the Icelandic savers got.

[sappatz]

swiss cheese

i have read it somewhere else too, maybe the economy is becoming like the lengedary cheese.
The only thing positive about Switzerland is that their debt is very low.

[NotAllThere]

I'm not entirely convinced, which some may view as wishful thinking on my part. While UBS and CS are the biggest banks, there's an awful lot of wealth in other private banks and the cantonal banks, and they are NOT exposed.

The rules here are also different about capitalisation. Many financial institutions have to be capitalised - they're not allowed to leverage.

And don't forget all the Nazi gold.

[AtW]

Switzerland is a highly desireable place to live, Iceland isn't. That certainly tarnished their reputation - the job of banks should be to save money and invest it very conservatively, Switzerland should not have allowed its banks to be involved in these games - buying stuff like gold yet, but not "AAA" sub-prime junk from all around the world.

[xoggoth]

Anyway, they could always blackmail lots of wealthy people by threatening to reveal what they don't want others to know.

[gingerjedi]

I expect people with deposits are just waiting for Lord Peston to say it is so, only then will the Swiss will be fecked.

[NotAllThere]

UBS has been supported by the Swiss National Bank. The SNB is smaller than many cantonal banks. CS has turned down the support, raising additional cash from elsewhere.

And although the deposits are 7 times greater than the GDP, a lot of that money hasn't been re-lent. Where as in Iceland it had.