Pressure on banking secrecy galvanises support
The Swiss have made it clear they treasure the country’s banking secrecy legislation and want to protect it, a study at Zurich University has shown.
In an online survey a group of university psychologists and other researchers asked 1,179 people in German-speaking Switzerland whether they felt banking secrecy was worth preserving.
Almost 72 per cent of respondents were in favour, with about 65 percent saying they would vote to keep banking secrecy for both domestic and foreign clients if the issue came to a national vote.
The results also showed that the more banking secrecy comes under fire, the stronger Swiss sentiment grows for protecting it.
About half the respondents also said they were against facilitating tax evasion.
Researchers said they could assume from the results that the willingness to defend banking secrecy would decrease if the topic were discussed objectively and not while under pressure from foreign influences.
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