Latin American clients and the debt crises

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Latin America supplied the Geneva financial centre with an important clientele during the golden age. The elites of several countries in the region, confronted with inflation, devaluations, coups d’état and expropriations, placed part of their wealth in Switzerland. The debt crisis that struck the region from 1982 onwards, when several states could no longer honour their commitments, accentuated this movement.¹

The flight of Latin American capital raised questions that the Geneva financial centre would encounter again elsewhere. Private fortunes were leaving countries whose governments were borrowing abroad, which aggravated those countries’ financial difficulties. Part of this wealth came from legitimate activities, another part from corruption or the misappropriation of public funds. Geneva’s Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking bankers, often themselves natives of the region, developed valuable expertise, but they were also exposed to the risks associated with politically exposed clients.

This clientele remains important today: the economic survey of the Fondation Genève Place Financière lists Latin America among the principal regions of origin of the centre’s clients.² The corruption affairs that have affected the region in the twenty-first century, and which have led to investigations involving Swiss banks, show that the risks persist.³

Notes

Announcement by the Mexican government on 12 August 1982 that it could no longer meet its financial obligations, the starting point of the developing-country debt crisis; “Crise de la dette des pays en voie de développement”, fr.wikipedia.org (accessed September 2026). ↩
Allnews, 21 October 2024, citing the survey of the Fondation Genève Place Financière. ↩
Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland, press release of 21 December 2016: Odebrecht SA and one of its subsidiaries were convicted by summary penalty order, with a compensatory claim and a fine exceeding CHF 200 million in total, at the conclusion of proceedings coordinated with the Brazilian and United States authorities. ↩

For general information only. This article does not constitute legal or tax advice, does not replace advice on an individual case and creates no lawyer-client relationship. It reflects the legal position as of September 2025.

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Dr Alexander Ressos, TEP

Rechtsanwalt/Attorney-at-Law

I am a Swiss attorney-at-law and also admitted as a solicitor in Hong Kong and in England & Wales, with almost 25 years of experience.

Together with my multilingual team, including Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Ukrainian and French native speakers, I advise companies and their owners from around the world on the full range of banking, corporate, commercial and tax law matters in Switzerland, including international tax planning, fiduciary services, and legal family office services including immigration & relocation or real estate investments. My practice has a particular focus on clients from growth and frontier markets in Greater China, Central Asia and the Caucasus, the rest of Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America, and I equally advise clients from Europe and North America. Through an affiliated Swiss trust company, we also take care of the incorporation and ongoing administration of their companies and other structures, including accounting, tax returns and corporate secretarial services, and I serve as a professional director where required. With the support of a network of first-class cooperation partners, I also implement solutions worldwide.

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Latin American clients and the debt crises

Notes

Setting up or expanding in Switzerland?