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BTW the funniest thing about Goldman Sachs Switzerland is that they do not accept US customers as they are considered 'toxic'. Practically no Swiss bank accept

BTW the funniest thing about Goldman Sachs Switzerland is that they do not accept US customers as they are considered 'toxic'. Practically no Swiss bank accepts US customers at this time. This can be quite a hardship for US citizens living in Switzerland. But they deem the risk just too high and rather forgo the business. To clarify what your Goldman friend meant. Swiss banks are obliged to keep customer identifiable data ring fenced and within the country. That is, it can't even be processed offshore. It has nothing to do how the entity is setup legally. For example (I work for a Swiss bank). I can easily remote access my desktop from home, or, if I have my laptop and token with me, from any other location in Switzerland. There is no way to access the systems from outside Switzerland. Singapore, btw, has comparable laws and also ring fences data for use only in Singapore.

sschueller 12y ago
There may be a technical restriction but what prevents a top US executive from Goldman from traveling to Switzerland an accessing the data? What about IT people? Such companies generally bring in IT professionals for projects from other entities such as the US headquarters.
- CaptainZapp 12y ago
  First of all, the role of that executive would require a business need to access the data at all. Banks are really big on compartmentalization and the most important principle is that a bank employee can only see, let alone modify, data as far as it's required to do his or her job. This also applies to top executives. It's unlikely that an US top executive has a valid business reason to see Swiss data when visiting the country. If such a reason exists he can surely see it, but it's probably illegal to take the data out of the country in any form. (I'm guessing here, but Swiss criminal law is quite finicky on the issue of bank secrecy). If the top executive tries to asshole his way into the data (as in: "hand over the data, or you're fired") any halfway smart employee would immediately inform compliance, where a whole cacophony of alarm bells would go off. As for IT professionals. Sure, a lot of foreign IT professionals work for Swiss Banks. But the need to access actual customer data is very, very rare. If the need exists, they can surely see it, but only from within the country's borders.
ryanjshaw 12y ago
> For example (I work for a Swiss bank). I can easily remote access my desktop from home, or, if I have my laptop and token with me, from any other location in Switzerland. There is no way to access the systems from outside Switzerland. Can you remote access your home desktop from outside Switzerland? :)
- zyx321 12y ago
  He probably could, if he really really wanted to go to jail.
- gtirloni 12y ago
  While I understand and accept the technical possibilities where this could be worked around, it actually misses the intent of the law. If someone where to be caught doing that, she/he would not be able to say it was technically possible so it's OK. It's technically possible but legally forbidden. So the message is: do it at your own peril. Reality and law don't always agree but when these things go to court, law has the upper-hand :)

sschueller 12y ago

There may be a technical restriction but what prevents a top US executive from Goldman from traveling to Switzerland an accessing the data? What about IT people? Such companies generally bring in IT professionals for projects from other entities such as the US headquarters.

CaptainZapp 12y ago
First of all, the role of that executive would require a business need to access the data at all. Banks are really big on compartmentalization and the most important principle is that a bank employee can only see, let alone modify, data as far as it's required to do his or her job. This also applies to top executives. It's unlikely that an US top executive has a valid business reason to see Swiss data when visiting the country. If such a reason exists he can surely see it, but it's probably illegal to take the data out of the country in any form. (I'm guessing here, but Swiss criminal law is quite finicky on the issue of bank secrecy). If the top executive tries to asshole his way into the data (as in: "hand over the data, or you're fired") any halfway smart employee would immediately inform compliance, where a whole cacophony of alarm bells would go off. As for IT professionals. Sure, a lot of foreign IT professionals work for Swiss Banks. But the need to access actual customer data is very, very rare. If the need exists, they can surely see it, but only from within the country's borders.

ryanjshaw 12y ago

> For example (I work for a Swiss bank). I can easily remote access my desktop from home, or, if I have my laptop and token with me, from any other location in Switzerland. There is no way to access the systems from outside Switzerland. Can you remote access your home desktop from outside Switzerland? :)

zyx321 12y ago
He probably could, if he really really wanted to go to jail.
gtirloni 12y ago
While I understand and accept the technical possibilities where this could be worked around, it actually misses the intent of the law. If someone where to be caught doing that, she/he would not be able to say it was technically possible so it's OK. It's technically possible but legally forbidden. So the message is: do it at your own peril. Reality and law don't always agree but when these things go to court, law has the upper-hand :)