Swiss defend bank secrecy

SWISS President Ueli Maurer said in an interview published yesterday he saw “no need to change strategy” after fellow financial centre Luxembourg eased its bank secrecy practices after increased pressure from Europe.

Now was a “dangerous time for Switzerland, (but) unlike Luxembourg, Switzerland is not part of the European Union (EU)” and it met Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development criteria, Mr Maurer told Swiss newspaper Le Matin Dimanche.

Switzerland and Austria have come under pressure to abandon bank secrecy after Luxembourg agreed to reveal information on EU depositors from 2015. The EU wants to establish this practice as a standard to crack down on tax evasion.

Mr Maurer said banking secrecy was “comparable” to medical confidentiality. “The state must absolutely respect the private sphere” and should not know “what there is in your bank account”.

Swiss Finance Minister Eveline WidmerSchlumpf hinted in several interviews last weekend Switzerland might have to consider an automatic exchange of information if it wanted to end its longstanding tax evasion conflict with the EU.

Mr Maurer, who is a leading figure of Switzerland’s right-wing People’s Party, said only domestic pressures could force Switzerland to review its policy. “We already made some concessions. Recently again with the FATCA (Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act) agreement signed with the US,” he said.

Bank secrecy no longer had the same importance as in the past as political stability and credibility were also a major draw for Swiss banks seeking to attract clients.

In a separate interview in the same newspaper, Patrick Odier, president of the Swiss Bankers’ Association, said an automatic exchange of information was “not the best option”. He defended the model of a withholding tax that “covers all revenues from Swiss deposits and offers a solution for the past and for the future”. Reuters