Switzerland seeks arrest of German tax collectors

In the latest chapter of an ugly dispute over tax evasion that has strained ties between Germany and its southern neighbour, a spokeswoman for the NRW finance ministry confirmed a report about the warrants due to appear in Sunday's Bild am Sonntag newspaper.

The tax collectors could be arrested if they cross the border into Switzerland, the newspaper said.

"There is a concrete suspicion that specific orders from Germany were issued to use espionage to obtain information from Credit Suisse," the Swiss attorney general said in a statement. "The attorney general has asked German authorities for assistance."

Hannelore Kraft, state premier of Germany's most populous region, told Bild am Sonntag she was appalled by the warrants.

"It's an outrage," said Kraft, who is seeking re-election in a vote on May 13. "The NRW tax investigators were simply doing their job tracking down German tax dodgers who stashed undeclared money in Swiss banks."

Several German states, including NRW, said in 2010 they had bought compact discs containing Swiss bank data from whistleblowers as part of a drive to flush out tax evaders. That prompted thousands of Germans to declare their financial holdings to avoid risking jail terms.

The federal government gave state authorities the go-ahead to buy the information even if it was obtained illegally. Germans have an estimated 150 billion Swiss francs ($200 billion) hidden in secret Swiss accounts.

Germany and Switzerland were working to salvage a landmark deal to tax secret offshore accounts at the weekend after Germany's main opposition party raised 11th hour objections to a compromise plan it said was full of loopholes. Chancellor Angela Merkel's centre-right coalition needs the backing of SPD-controlled states to push the tax deal through the Bundesrat upper house, but so far SPD state premiers have said concessions offered by Switzerland do not go far enough.

Myanmar poised to let in foreign banks

BANGKOK – Myanmar’s government is likely to allow foreign banks into the country by 2015 and will also pass a new foreign investment law in the coming months, a senior official at Myanmar’s biggest commercial bank said last week.

U Than Lwin, deputy chairman of Kanbawza Bank and a former deputy governor of the Central Bank of Myanmar, said he also believes Myanmar’s Central Bank will likely cut interest rates because rates in the country are higher than in neighbouring Southeast Asian nations. The present deposit rate is 8 percent, he said, while lending rates are set at 13pc. He didn’t say exactly when he thought rates could go lower.

U Than Lwin was speaking at an investment seminar in Bangkok organised by Colliers International Thailand and Universal Link Services Co, as well as the Nation Group, a media company.

The moves are expected as part of a broader opening of Myanmar’s economy that has included reforms aimed at attracting more foreign capital after decades of harsh military rule.

Myanmar remains subject to Western economic sanctions, including US rules that block financial transactions with the country. But many analysts believe Western governments will ease those rules or drop them entirely in the coming year in recognition of the country’s reforms.