That's what
some of the world's largest wealth-management firms are saying ahead of
Washington's implementation of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, known as
Fatca, which seeks to prevent tax evasion by Americans with offshore accounts.
HSBC Holdings, Deutsche Bank, Bank of Singapore and DBS Group Holdings all say
they have turned away business. "I don't
open US accounts, period," said Su Shan Tan, head of private banking at
Singapore-based DBS, Southeast Asia's largest lender, who described regulatory
attitudes toward US clients as "Draconian."
The government
needs to be tougher on offshore tax crimes than it has been, said US
Representative Richard Neal, a Massachusetts Democrat and one of the original
sponsors of the legislation. Fatca, introduced after Zurich-based UBS said in
2009 that it aided tax evasion by Americans and agreed to pay $780 million
(Dh2,868 million) to avoid prosecution, is already helping to improve banking
transparency, he said.
"Most of
the hedge funds I know in Asia won't take American clients," said Faber.
Bank of
Singapore, the private-banking arm of Oversea-Chinese Banking, ranked strongest
in the world for the last two years by Bloomberg Markets magazine, has turned
away millions of dollars from Americans because it doesn't want to deal with
the regulatory hassle, according to Chief Executive Officer Renato de Guzman.
The bank had $32 billion under management as of the beginning of the year.
At industry
meetings he attends in Singapore, not accepting US clients is "quite a
prevailing sentiment," de Guzman said. There are 18 private banks
operating in Singapore, including units run by UBS, Credit Suisse Group,
Deutsche Bank and HSBC, he said.
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