PRESS RELEASE

Swiss Bail-In Scheme: Stealing a Half-Trillion Euro from Depositors

Aug. 12, 2013 (EIRNS) —A paper published by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority FINMA is causing an uproar in Switzerland and confirms all allegations raised by EIR against the planned "Quantitative Stealing." The paper says that up to 600 billion Swiss francs (€487 billion) in depositors' money are included in the bail-in chest for the two large Swiss banks, UBS and Crédit Suisse.

The FINMA paper was issued on Aug. 7 and was published in English on the FINMA website. The paper is an assessment of how the bail-in procedures introduced in Switzerland at the end of 2012 would work in the case of the two "too-big-to-fail" Swiss banks, and is shockingly candid in its admissions. For instance:

• When all other bail-in instruments are exhausted (shares and bonds), "Uninsured deposits of around Swiss Francs 300 billion per bank are also potentially subject to bail-in";

• Despite the agreement among the FDIC, the Bank of England, and FINMA to have an international legal framework that allows "Single Entry Point" (SEP) bail-ins (i.e. managed globally by the authorities of the home country), there is the danger that a judge in a U.S. court could block the bail-in. "Certain state and Federal laws permit U.S. regulators to seize assets of U.S. branches and other assets in the United States of an insolvent foreign bank and to apply such assets first to satisfy creditors of the U.S. branches, before returning any excess to the home office of the bank."

The FINMA publication comes in the context of a growing movement against the bail-in scheme in Switzerland, which started after EIR first exposed the FINMA scheme last spring. The EIR exposé, picked up by the Zurich-based "Impulswelle" group, has prompted the government to respond defensively with an official letter.