Should Switzerland give up banking secrecy?
In recent years, the Swiss financial sector has been under increasing international pressure to bend its bank secrecy laws. Can and should Switzerland do more to defend its bank secrecy? If so, at what cost?
The Swiss bank secrecy law, in force since 1934, concerns the protection of bank customers’ private information. Swiss banks have profited from the law reaping billions in foreign un-taxed assets.
In recent years, those profits became problems for the Swiss banking sector as the United States and several European countries lined up to protest and recoup tax money lost in Swiss bank accounts. Are those foreign attacks justified, or are they just intended to weaken the Swiss financial sector?
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