Swiss President Blames U.S. for Impasse on Tax Accord

Swiss President Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf has defended the head of the central bank, Philipp Hildebrand, accused of insider trading, and said he should not resign."We would lose a (central bank) president who has undisputedly done excellent work, has a good network, and could be very useful to Switzerland," said Widmer-Schlumpf, who is also finance minister, on Swiss television late Friday.She said what the SNB chief had done was "excusable if you realise that you shouldn't do that and that the rules should be changed as a result."

Swiss President Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf has defended the head of the central bank, Philipp Hildebrand, accused of insider trading, and said he should not resign."We would lose a (central bank) president who has undisputedly done excellent work, has a good network, and could be very useful to Switzerland," said Widmer-Schlumpf, who is also finance minister, on Swiss television late Friday.She said what the SNB chief had done was "excusable if you realise that you shouldn't do that and that the rules should be changed as a result."

There will be no fiscal amnesty as part of any agreement on banking secrecy with Switzerland, said French President François Hollande on Friday after meeting Swiss Finance Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf.

ZURICH (Reuters) - Switzerland's finance minister is confident a deal to tax German assets stashed in the country will go ahead, despite calls by Germany's opposition Social Democrats (SPD) to scupper the agreement because it is too lax in tackling tax evaders. Switzerland and Germany hammered out a new deal in April to confront tax evasion, but SPD members have said they will block it in the upper house of parliament. "I still think that we can manage it. But it will be difficult," the minister, Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf, told the Sonntag newspaper in an interview. ...

ZURICH (Reuters) - U.S. officials seem to want an end to a dispute over wealthy Americans with hidden Swiss offshore bank accounts before the U.S. presidential election in November, the Swiss finance minister said in a newspaper interview on Saturday. "My impression at the moment is that the U.S. wants a solution by the elections. Both sides endeavour to find a solution in the foreseeable future," Switzerland's finance minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf told Basler Zeitung.

ZURICH (Reuters) - Switzerland and the United States need more time to negotiate a tax deal, Swiss finance minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf told Swiss radio on Saturday, as the United States pushes for it to supply information on bank clients who are alleged to have evaded taxes.