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Swiss banks face boycott threat as talks stall
DANIEL KURTZMAN
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
WASHINGTON - Swiss banks may face a renewed boycott threat as U.S. public finance officers prepare to meet early next month.
New York City Comptroller Alan Hevesi has asked state and local finance officers to reconvene July 1, amid reports that talks between the banks and Jewish representatives on a settlement to Holocaust-era claims are near a breakdown.
In late March, the finance officers agreed to hold off on sanctions against Switzerland's three largest banks - Union Bank of Switzerland, Credit Suisse and Swiss Bank Corp. - for 90 days while negotiators tried to work out a settlement. The prospects for reaching a settlement by June 30 - or at any point in the near future - now appear to be a long shot at best. Jewish negotiators did not attend the latest round of U.S.-brokered talks in Washington after the banks failed to put forward an acceptable offer, according to sources familiar with the talks.
A widely reported offer by the banks to pay more than $1 billion to Holocaust survivors turned out to include hundreds of millions of dollars in funds that survivors would receive regardless of whether a settlement was reached. That money would come from an auditing process currently under way, led by former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, to return all unclaimed Holocaust-era bank accounts held by Swiss banks.
The Volcker commission could produce unclaimed assets estimated to be currently worth more than $700 million, one source said. Beyond that amount, the banks only offered $530 million - a figure that one source described as "insulting."
If the impasse is not broken, the issue may ultimately be settled in court. Holocaust survivors still have three multibillion-dollar class-action lawsuits pending in New York, where a federal judge has been awaiting the outcome of settlement talks before proceeding.
But that course, which could ultimately yield more money for Holocaust survivors, would likely draw out the process for years.
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