Basel, 16 September 2004 – The 91st General Assembly of the Swiss Bankers Association (SBA) took place today in Geneva. Some 400 bankers and guests from Swiss economic, political, association and media circles attended the annual event which is also known as “Swiss Bankers’ Day”.
Guests also included ambassadors from over 20 countries.

In his first Swiss Bankers’ Day speech as Chairman of the SBA Pierre Mirabaud spoke unequivocally in favour of the Swiss-EU Bilateral ll agreements and assured those present of the support of the Swiss banking industry. Mr. Mirabaud went on to describe the often-heard criticism of the performance of Swiss banks as incorrect and distant from daily banking realities.  He also stressed that protection of privacy in Switzerland was not an invention of bankers, but rather had much to do with the relationship of trust between citizen and state in Switzerland. He also examined the complementary relationship between financial centre and business location. He said that the problem of Switzerland as a business location was not its strong financial centre but rather glaringly-low economic growth as a result of a lack of competition, burgeoning bureaucracy and wrong priorities in training. Mr. Mirabaud then commented on two topical issues. He criticised Germany’s restrictive handling of the issue of crossborder financial services offered from Switzerland as “heritage protection“ and made it clear that the SBA would remain active in this matter. With regard to the so-called “Swiss Finish” in connection with Basel ll – in other words  the national implementation of the new capital adequacy accord – Mr. Mirabaud said Swiss banks must not be placed at a disadvantage in their international business as a result of any possible excessive interpretation of the accord. Mr. Mirabaud concluded with an appeal to bankers to take more pride in their successes and to be resolute in winning new markets.
The traditional address on behalf of the government was delivered by Federal Councillor Samuel Schmid in a speech entitled “Freiheit, Sicherheit und Wirtschaft” (“Freedom, Security and Economy”).

PDF Chairman's address SBA
PDF Address on behalf of the government (in German only)

Contacts
Thomas Sutter	James Nason
Head of Communications Switzerland	Head of International Communications
Swiss Bankers Association, Basel	Swiss Bankers Association, Basel
Tel. +41 61 295 92 06	Tel. +41 61 295 92 15
Fax +41 61 272 53 82	Fax +41 61 272 53 82
www.swissbanking.org	www.swissbanking.org