Basler Kantonalbank is paying dearly for having helped Americans to hide their cash from the U.S. tax authorities.
Basler Kantonalbank (BKB) signed a deferred prosecution agreement with the Department of Justice (DoJ) on Tuesday and will pay $60.4 million in compensation, according to a release.
The bank in December 2013 took a provision of 100 million Swiss francs ($102 million) for the case.
With the agreement, the bank will be able to remove 33 million francs from the provisions, a welcome boost to the bank’s profit in the second half.
White Money Only
BKB is pursuing a so-called white-money strategy, with much tougher compliance instruments in place to prevent expensive malpractices.
The bank removed untaxed assets from its books and took all necessary precautions to only have taxed money under management, independent of the source of the assets.
The Zurich-based private-banking unit, which had been strong in the U.S. business, was closed down in 2014. The people who had been in charge of the business don’t work for BKB any longer.
