The Swiss virtues of reliability, precision and high quality still matter in a digital age, Herbert Scheidt, the president of the Swiss Bankers Association told finews.com in an exclusive interview. He also said why Switzerland needs a framework agreement with the European Union.
Herbert Scheidt, you have German roots, but you are also a Swiss citizen. What about you is strongly Swiss, would you say?
Not also! I am Swiss. Switzerland isn’t only for professional reasons, but also as a private citizen most definitely my home. To get the passport, you had to have lived for twelve years in Switzerland. At the end of the twelfth year, I immediately received the passport. I was the CEO of Vontobel at the time. It was obvious to me that as a Swiss CEO it wasn’t enough to think as a Swiss but also to have a Swiss passport.
Do you feel like a foreigner back in Germany?
If I travel to Berlin for the Swiss Bankers Association, I go there as a representative of Switzerland and as such I have a different perspective. At the same time, it is an advantage that I very well know and understand the other side and its peculiarities. The same applies to Italy and the U.S., where I also have lived and worked. That way I don’t really see myself as a foreigner. Which I try to make best use of – to the best of our cause.
«My motivation was to find ways out of the loss of reputation since the financial crisis»
Did you never worry that you, born as a German citizen, wouldn’t be accepted at the top of the Swiss Bankers Association?
I never felt that way. But I know that this was an issue for many bankers. I asked myself whether I would be able to carry the big responsibility of strengthening the financial market and to lead the industry out of its reputational trough.
And that was your motivation?
Yes, to lend the financial market a strong voice and to lead it into the future. To find ways out of the loss of reputation since the financial crisis of 2008.
«We have rebuilt and as an industry, we stand strongly»
After two years as the association’s chairman: in what situation is the industry today?
The government and the Swiss National Bank had taken their distance to our industry following the events of 2008. In those years, this may have had its justification. But now we have to find back to dialogue, and for that purpose, we need a strong group at the Bankers Association.
You have been criticized for expensive trips abroad.
We want to create the conditions for tomorrow, to be ready for the future and to distinguish ourselves from what happened in our industry from 2008 through 2016. This is a message also for foreign countries. We recently visited Latin America. There, government representatives literally wrote down, what we had to say.
Why?
Because a lot of people still don't seem to know what Switzerland has done since the financial crisis, both for its financial market and the industry. The fact that everything has changed fundamentally has not been taken aboard in the rest of the world.
Which also becomes apparent in our discussions with the EU. The perception still is that you «shift» money to Switzerland. But money no longer is being «shifted» to Switzerland since the automatic exchange of information. Foreign tax authorities see everything and they know everything. We are fully transparent. We still have a lot to do to break down the old prejudice and to transmit the new message. This otherwise will hurt us.
What makes you confident about being the chairman of the Bankers Association?
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