国产热热热精品,亚洲视频久久】日韩,三级婷婷在线久久,99人妻精品视频,精品九热人人肉肉在线,AV东京热一区二区,91po在线视频观看,久久激情宗合,青青草黄色手机视频

USEUROPEAFRICAASIA 中文雙語Fran?ais
China
Home / China / Life

Swiss town laments a bank's fall

By John Tagliabue | The New York Times | Updated: 2013-02-03 07:36

 Swiss town laments a bank's fall

Before it was split up, Wegelin bank, center, sponsored concerts and architectural projects. daniel auf der mauer for The New York Times

ST. GALLEN, Switzerland - Given the modest size of its offices, it is easy to underestimate the imprint of the bank once called Wegelin on this compact Swiss city.

It is not just that it was the oldest bank in Switzerland, founded in 1741. Its senior managing partner, Konrad Hummler, was the son of a former mayor, chairman of the board of the Neue Zurcher Zeitung, the Zurich daily that is the country's leading newspaper, and the prolific author of columns in which he often denounced the business practices of bigger Swiss banks, like UBS.

But most important, Wegelin, which closed in January, was a significant sponsor of cultural institutions. Among its projects, in 2006 Mr. Hummler, a music lover and amateur violinist, established the Johann Sebastian Bach Foundation, with the goal of financing the performance and recording of the entire vocal works of the German composer, more than 200 cantatas, a task expected to last more than 20 years.

The bank also was dedicated to preserving the architectural substance of the town. In 2007, Wegelin paid almost $2 million for a significant part of the late Gothic convent of St. Catherine, a former nunnery with a soaring chapel and vaulted cloister that was in considerable disrepair. It then underwrote a restoration of the chapel with its 19th-century organ, and other portions of the buildings. The idea was to use them for performances of Bach's works and other music.

Now, all this is jeopardized. Last year, Wegelin was charged in the United States with illegally helping American citizens avoid taxes. Wegelin was split up and its valuable assets placed with another local bank, Raiffeisen. Its bad assets remained with Wegelin, though its name was changed to Notenstein Privatbank.

Wegelin executives eventually pleaded guilty before a court in New York to helping Americans avoid taxes on $1.2 billion of assets between 2002 and 2010, and agreed to pay restitution and fines of almost $60 million. Entering the plea, one of Mr. Hummler's closest associates, Otto Bruderer, told the court that Wegelin had always believed it was in compliance with Swiss law, adding that "such conduct was common in the Swiss banking industry."

For many in the town, Wegelin's disappearance brought disillusionment. "I am not astonished, I am rather disappointed, at how naive they could be, for a particularly serious institution," said Marcel Mayer, 58, a historian.

Business leaders have retained their respect for Mr. Hummler and the bank. Profit was "not the principal motivation" for Mr. Hummler's support of the arts, said Fredmund Malik, 58, an Austrian business consultant. "It was a genuine concern of his, very profound, and at a very high level."

He added: "There is general regret at what has happened, and even among private bankers, the reaction has been low key."

The New York Times

 

Editor's picks
Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site.
License for publishing multimedia online 0108263

Registration Number: 130349
FOLLOW US
恩施市| 台山市| 贵溪市| 桦甸市| 阿瓦提县| 美姑县| 泰兴市| 高陵县| 长乐市| 弥勒县| 余江县| 安龙县| 依安县| 天峨县| 故城县| 蓬莱市| 南木林县| 洛宁县| 曲水县| 昔阳县| 钟祥市| 广河县| 赤峰市| 宝丰县| 怀集县| 玛多县| 博客| 宿迁市| 驻马店市| 曲麻莱县| 福建省| 新建县| 资兴市| 金川县| 化隆| 珲春市| 瑞昌市| 卢氏县| 鄂州市| 阳新县| 高唐县|