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.

新加坡将取代瑞士成为全球财富管理中心，低税率，币值稳定，企业登记注册效率高及监管明朗令世界富豪纷沓而来。

金融研究机构最新数据，按照到2020年管理的资产规模计算，新加坡将取代瑞士成为全球最大的离岸财富中心。普华永道称，从声誉看，新加坡今年将超过瑞士。财务顾问公司Z/Yen将香港和新加坡列为排在伦敦和纽约之后的全球四大金融中心城市。

波士顿咨询公司研究表明，截至2011年底，新加坡拥有全球最高的百万富豪家庭比例，而香港则有最高的亿万富豪/人口比。亚太地区（日本除外）的私人财富在2011年增加了10.7%，至23.7万亿美元，相比之下，北美和西欧的私人财富同期却出现了下降。新加坡的低税率，币值稳定，企业登记注册的效率高以及监管规定明确令其较瑞士更具吸引力。

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(暂时放置或停留) 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(选择) 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(背离) 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(顺利、轻易、有规则、没有困难地).

Isa Soares, CNN, London.