The Swiss Bank Secrecy Act was tightened in 2015 following a spate of stolen data being bought by foreign tax authorities.
But journalists and historians are crying foul of the law that hinders their work – and could land them in jail.
Some parliamentarians have suggested loosening the Bank Secrecy law. But this proposal will face stiff opposition.
It's not about letting your neighbours know how much money you have, it's about catching the dishonest, the criminals, the terrorists, the sanctions busters. Honest people have nothing to fear. Losing banking secrecy does not mean banks taking out full page advertisements in NZZ or TA saying "Na na na na na! Herr Schmidt paid for an hour with Mistress Whiplash last Wednesday!" Yes, it is annoying to find out Sovereignty is not the same as it used to be, and that countries that do business with the US have to follow US rules which we have no political control over. That's just a fact of life. We still have the very best political system in the world where compromise is how you get things done. So it is internationally.
The right to individual privacy should be a - natural right. In recent decades, little by little, our rights - to a private life, to free expression, to self-defense (protecting lives of family/friends), are being taken away by lawmakers/leaders, who are greedy for ever more control and power over the people. And as humans, they are just as likely to commit crime, to be corrupt, as any other.
Finally, why are we always fixated on WW2? Wars destroy lives, but we humans have not stopped fighting wars since WW2; we continue to deploy ever more weapons and kill more humans. WW2 was not a special war; millions died in other wars too.
Time to move on. Time to resolve issues thru dialog and NOT by building more weapons! Time to stop antagonizing others, trying to exert power over others; time to stop being greedy for more power, so that wars do not even start.
Time to start respecting others and their decisions. And, we do need more privacy, not less.
When it serves to hide money that comes from illegal activities, yes, it is harmful.
In my opinion it should have been retained because it is since it came off that Switzerland has lost attractiveness ... unveiling only accounts of underworlders or people officially prosecuted in their home countries would have been a better choice .
Secondo me andava mantenuto perché è da quando è venuto meno che la Svizzera ha perso attrattiva .. svelare solo conti di malavitosi o persone perseguite ufficialmente nei loro paesi di origine sarebbe stata una scelta migliore .
So the question is: Where does this money go that countries have not recovered?
إذن يكون السؤال المطروح: أين تذهب تلك الأموال التي لم تستردها الدول؟
Of course, it hinders society and allows thieves to have safe havens, making Swiss banks like Alibaba caves. Swiss banks have become notorious banks. Swiss banks are profiting from dirty money deposited by corrupt officials from the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, Asia and Europe.
بالطبع تعيق المجتمع وتسمح للصوص بملاذات آمنة، مما يجعل بنوك سويسرا كمغارات علي بابا ، وجعلت من بنوك سويسرا بنوكا سيئة السمعة، وأصبحت بنوك سويسرا تتربح من الأموال القذرة المودعة من قبل المسؤولين الفاسدين من الشرق الأوسط وأفريقيا وامريكا اللاتينية وآسيا وأوروبا.
Dear swissinfo "Swiss banks are profiting from dirty money deposited by corrupt officials from the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, Asia and Europe" is a strong allegation which is not proven fact. How can such a comment make it to publish?
Thank you for your contribution. The comment you are replying to is directly translated from Arabic and is posed as an opinion. It does not violate our guidelines.
Please feel free to read our guidelines for more information:
[url]https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/terms-of-use/44141966[/url]
Dear, the money of corrupt rulers and officials overthrown by the Arab Spring revolutions and deposited in Swiss banks was recognized by the Swiss government and asked the concerned countries to officially address the Swiss Federation to recover those funds. Indeed, the governments of those countries have applied for the recovery of these funds looted from oppressed peoples. To date, not a single dollar has been returned to those countries due to bank secrecy and the expiration of the legal period of the claim, which makes Swiss banks in the target of charges.
عزيزي ، أموال الحكام والمسئولين الفاسدين الذين أطاحت بهم ثورات الربيع العربي والمودعه في بنوك سويسرا والتي اعترفت بها الحكومة السويسرية وطلبت من الدول المعنية مخاطبة الفيدرالية السويسرية رسمياً باسترداد تلك الأموال وبالفعل تقدمت حكومات تلك الدول بطلب استرداد تلك الأموال المنهوبة من الشعوب المقهورة وحتي وقتنا هذا لم يتم ردّ دولار واحد إلى تلك الدول بدواعي السرية المصرفية وانقضاء المدة القانونية للمطالبه الأمر الذي يجعل البنوك السويسرية في مرمى الاتهامات.
Yes a lot of rich people from these countries keep their money in Swiss Banks but this is not because they are criminals but because Switzerland has a very stable economy and solid laws to protect your wealth.
Why don't they deposit their money in American, British and French banks, is their economy very stable and their laws are strong to protect wealth. In addition to the above, they have laws that force disclosure of the sources of those funds, which makes them prefer Swiss banks that welcome all types of money without disclosing their sources, because Swiss laws are highly confidential and strong to protect wealth. ?
ولماذا لا يُودعون أموالهم في بنوك امريكا وبريطانيا وفرنسا.. أليس اقتصادهم مستقرا للغاية وقوانينهم قوية لحماية الثروات؟ إضافة إلى ما سبق لديهم قوانين تجبر الإفصاح عن مصادر تلك الأموال، وهو ما يجعلهم يفضلون بنوك سويسرا التي ترحب بكافة أنواع الأموال دون الإفصاح عن مصادرها، لأن قوانين سويسرا سرية للغاية وقوية لحماية الثروات؟
Corruption, in one form or another, exists in EVERY country of the world, even in the most democratic countries. Bribing a company to get a contract is criminal. But handing out secret subsidizes to companies, so that they can gain unfair advantage in international trade, is a common practice, but hardly considered criminal.
Price setting with competitors, with intention of keeping prices high, is also a common practice. As are the following practices:
- Company A forces Company B to not use competitor products, by using various unethical methods.
- Deliberately extending patent life by making minor/useless alterations.
- By adopting methods to slow down development of other countries.
All these methods and many more, have only one purpose: To unfairly (corruptly) gain ever more wealth, at the expense of (penalizing) another company/group of people/country.
You appear to imply that somehow where(ever) you live, people are decent/honest. NOT true! "Thieves", as you put them, exist in every tribe, their agendas are the same. There is no evidence that they only exist in regions you mention.
But instead of lifting banking secrecy, wouldn't it be more useful to increase the cantonal authorities' means of investigation ?
Ma al posto di togliere il segreto bancario non sarebbe più utile aumentare i mezzi d'indagine delle autorità cantonali ?
It is of no use because Kanton authorities are not responsible for crime or banking crime. They are only interested in local crimes and collecting their tax. It is barking up the wrong tree. Also there is no group in Switzerland who will like to do prosecution. Most of the criminals with banking secrecy have powerful friends and rich wallets to fight back.
Switzerland has a drastic policy concerning the banking secrecy, certainly the hardest in the World. But despite this we are still in the grey area for the EU.
La Suisse a une politique drastique concernant le secret bancaire, certainement plus dur du Monde. Mais malrgrès cela sommes toujours dans la zone grise pour l'UE.
It is a blackmailing sceme by the E.U. because they lost U.K. and need more money to import more immigrants.
And there are also very strong regulations around KYC. It is harder also to open an account in a Swiss bank compared with any EU country. And if you are US citizen the level of scrutiny is even higher.
First off a bit unrelated but I have such brand loyalty to Credit Suisse; perfect by design, I feel such disdain when it’s wrought by misfortune. Second, “Whoever controls the money, controls the power.” Swiss banking secrecy doesn’t work in the way in which the political or warmongering conspiracy theorist avow — at least not from person experience. As my duality pertains to Constitutions Swiss “banking secrecy,” a form of alienable rights as “banking secrecy” aids in freedom or the proper word usage — liberty. One does have a right to his/her papers which also clearly includes money; it’s like dealing with an abusive spouse (domestic terrorist). Banking secrecy is a must as is common sense.
Are you referring to the Credit Suisse that just crashed? It is a very sad story but knowing it from inside, I am not surprised at all. The bank got eaten from the inside out by corrupt power hungry people. All across the organization. And those around did nothing out of fear to loose their job. Everyone looked away and not even HR addressed the conflict of interest that were destroying the culture. Very sad story.
Yeah… just a Uni student with my first bank account — in Switzerland. That post was before the crash; zeitgeist.
Switzerland thrived on banking secrecy introduced as a result of Nazi Jewish persecution. From an event related to World War II, it resulted in a very useful institutionalized means of hiding wealth especially before the IRS! It is partly abolished today, however....
As for historical research, I don't really see what it has to do with bank secrecy. There are quite other sources of research.
La Svizzera ha prosperato sul segreto bancario introdotto a seguito della persecuzione ebraiche naziste. Da un evento legato alla seconda guerra mondiale, ne è scaturito un utilissimo mezzo istituzionalizzato per nascondere la ricchezza soprattutto davanti al fisco! In parte oggi è abolito, però...
Quanto alla ricerca storica, non vedo bene cosa centri col segreto bancario. Ci sono ben altre fonti di ricerca.
Switzerland is the only true democracy in the world, the governments are owned by the people.
So called Swiss banking secrecy laws are being misused. I give you an example of my personal experience. I am sending my pension to Indonesia. My UN pension is in US dollars and I am passing it on in US dollars. All of a sudden I am getting frantic phone calls from UBS informing me that the Americans are asking why I am sending regular funds to Indonesia. Really? A lousy small amount? UBS makes me sign a paper that they can inform the Americans now and in the future about all my transactions. The Americans just want to interfer and we let them. Our banks should resist.
Just signing a document? And what personal harm did you get from that? Tracking money internationally is useful in fighting terrorism and also other things like espionage
Solo firmare un documento? E che danno personale ne hai avuto? Rintracciare i soldi a livello internazionale è utile per lottare contro il terrorismo e anche altro come lo spionaggio
Agree, banks are scared as hell from people with any connection to US, so I won't even visit it as tourist just in case. Anyway I am not good with cornbased food.
There should be some 'common sense' in its implementation. Small pension amounts surely have nothing to do with 9/11 kind of financing nor money laundering. To not care 'just signing a piece of paper' is giving the US authority to misuse our 'kindness'.
Thanks for your comment Rafiq, you do raise an important point. It coukld be argued that the scales have shifted too far in the other direction since the end of the strictest bank secrecy days. Financial confidentiality still has its place for honest people transfering their money around the world.
Are you US citizen or have you lived there? This is a US requirement. There is a massive tax avoidance in the US and UBS is collaborating to prevent money laundry. You should cooperate too.
"There is a massive tax avoidance in the US" - I was under the impression that US was a honest country, where laws were decent and they supported a free society. You seem to imply otherwise i.e. that there is massive corruption and fraud. I doubt that. You have any evidence?
I was also under the impression that laws are created by elected officials of a country, for that country. I did not know American laws are applied even in an independent country such as Switzerland.
Can Switzerland apply its laws in US? Maybe it can. I had not idea that any country can apply its laws, in any other country. It does get complicated.
Apply it even-handed and not according to who it is, where it comes from. Should certainly NOT be used to launder money by no one. No one amount of money should be given preference over another.
It will not work. We had bank secrecy for everyone and it attracted everyone, now we have secrecy only for ultra rich by ubs and credit suisse who simply don't fill in their papers properly and pay huge fines for it to hide the corrupt money and if cought they say it is the person with lowest possible position in this current chane to go to prison or Switzerland just pardons them after few years when everyone forgets. So no, we will never see honest local newspapers about our financial system because now it is catering only for ultra rich and they will just pay there way through our politicians because they in return does not have to say who and how much lobbiet them. Both secretes are ridiculous.
It's also a great shame that everyday honest Americans struggle to open a Swiss bank account because the AML paperwork on small clients is considered too onerous to take on such clients.
It is business, no one will invest their time into troublesome client if he brings same profit as a regular client. I think overall its because of very confusing U.S. yax system, even their big companies often don't submit any tax return and pay fines because it is cheaper than hiring dozens of people to the tax and still get it wrong. I fully understand why Swiss banks don't want to touch it but I get it thats it is an inconvenience for U.S. citizens. I hope they can help themselves.
Well this is on the US and their government. Swiss banks do not get in the way of other countries regulations.
Join the conversation!