Rich flock to Singapore

For years, the rich have flocked to Zurich. But now they may be looking at Singapore. CNN's Isa Soares reports.

新加坡將取代瑞士成為全球財富管理中心，低稅率，幣值穩定，企業登記注冊效率高及監管明朗令世界富豪紛沓而來。

金融研究機構最新數據，按照到2020年管理的資產規模計算，新加坡將取代瑞士成為全球最大的離岸財富中心。普華永道稱，從聲譽看，新加坡今年將超過瑞士。財務顧問公司Z/Yen將香港和新加坡列為排在倫敦和紐約之后的全球四大金融中心城市。

波士頓咨詢公司研究表明，截至2011年底，新加坡擁有全球最高的百萬富豪家庭比例，而香港則有最高的億萬富豪/人口比。亞太地區（日本除外）的私人財富在2011年增加了10.7%，至23.7萬億美元，相比之下，北美和西歐的私人財富同期卻出現了下降。新加坡的低稅率，幣值穩定，企業登記注冊的效率高以及監管規定明確令其較瑞士更具吸引力。

Singapore has been a heaven for millionaires for years. Thanks in part to its low taxes. Now in a new report, this tiny island will be the place for the wealthy to park(暫時放置或停留) their money. According to London research firm Wealth Insight, Singapore will overtake Switzerland as the biggest offshore wealth center in terms of assets by 2020. I asked one team analyst why the wealthy are opting for(選擇) Singapore.

It's got a stable government, a transparent legal system, a history of of investment management. Having English as its first language is very, very helpful. And therefore, you know, it's the obvious place to go to.

According to the research firm behind this report, Singapore is the fastest growth wealth center in the world with 550 billion dollars in assets on the management. That's up from 50 billion dollars in the year 2000. About 450 billion dollars of that cash is offshore, but that's still a far cry from that of Switzerland, which reportedly has 2.8 trillion dollars in assets on the management, about 34% of the global wealth pie.

Now those numbers show that Singapore still has a lot of catching up to do, but playing in its favor is a feeling that the wealthy are falling out of love with Switzerland. Analysts say that's in part because of outside pressures, like legal actions from the U.S. and Europe that have shaken up Switzerland's Bank Secrecy Laws. Location being far from your client if your client is indeed a wealthy Asian investor, and a shrunk Swiss Franc have also played a part. Last year, the Swiss Franc soared some 20% because of a concern of the Europe's debt crisis, a worry that some say is not going away any time soon.

The European crisis undoubtedly had a big impact on Switzerland because all the European nations now are looking to get back as much taxes as they possibly can from anywhere, and any while, and particularly like to hit wealthy people because it makes good political headlines.

So I think the answer to that is, you know, we've seen Switzerland fall away(背離) as a good, you know, a secret cross-boarder location and just become somewhere which is convenient to put you money with a, obviously, I mean, its good tax rate.

Well, according to this report Swiss offshore assets could fall by nearly a third by 2016, while Singapore's can more than quadruple by then - a sign that Switzerland's wealth model may no longer be ticking on like clockwork(順利、輕易、有規則、沒有困難地).

Isa Soares, CNN, London.