Swiss and American experts discuss white-collar crime

Government officials and private sector experts from both countries attended the talks in Bern Keystone

Switzerland and the United States say they will increase cooperation in fighting white-collar crime. The two sides met for the first time in Bern on Tuesday in a meeting of the Joint Economic Commission (JEC).

Government officials and financial experts from the private sector took part in the talks, which focused on bankers’ “know your customer” guidelines and measures to combat money laundering.

The participants discussed cooperation between the two countries’ judicial authorities and the security forces.

They looked at ways in which new technologies in the financial sectors are being exploited for illegal activities, and about the problems of funds of dubious origin linked to foreign potentates.

The newly-drawn up Wolfsberg guidelines, set out by the leading banks in a bid to avoid their financial services being abused by white-collar criminals, were also on the agenda.

The Swiss economics minister, Pascal Couchepin, and his American counterpart, William Daley, set up the JEC at the January 2000 World Economic Forum meeting in Davos.

Banking executives from leading banks, including UBS, Credit Suisse, Chase Manhattan Corporation and Citygroup, were amongst those present.

swissinfo with agencies