The youth branch of the rightwing Swiss People's Party has joined a campaign to protect banking secrecy by collecting signatures for a people's initiative.

Eric Hess, president of the group, told media in Bern on Tuesday that the effort was aimed at enshrining banking secrecy laws into the country's constitution to prevent the exchange of account holder data with foreign investigators.

That was the best way to protect the private financial data of every Swiss citizen, he said.

The Lega dei Ticinesi, a rightwing protest movement in canton Ticino, started the petition and has been gathering signatures since the spring.

The youth wing of the People's Party has printed 160,000 forms for gathering more signatures. To force a people's initiative, a group must collect 100,000 signatures within 18 months.

The main branch of the People's Party will formalise their position on the matter on August 21.

swissinfo.ch and agencies

In compliance with the JTI standards

More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative