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Swiss banks to ease secrecy laws amid blitz on tax havens
Hugo Duncan16 Mar 2009
Switzerland today pledged to relax its much-cherished bank secrecy laws amid a global crackdown on tax havens.
The Swiss government said it will co-operate with international investigations into tax evasion after years of resisting calls to be more open.
Austria and Luxembourg also gave concessions on bank secrecy after talks with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, which sets rules on tax and bank data sharing.
It followed similar agreements yesterday with Andorra and Liechtenstein and came as finance ministers and central bankers from the G20 nations prepared this afternoon for their weekend summit in Sussex to discuss a roadmap to tackle the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.
Offshore tax evasion is expected to be discussed at the meeting and at the G20 summit next month.
The dramatic moves by the five countries, and Switzerland in particular, piled pressure on the UK Government to reform its tax system.
Britain is reckoned to be one of the biggest tax havens in the world thanks to the tax relief it gives to non-doms who have flocked to London to protect their wealth.
The OECD welcomed today's move but campaigners called for further action.
An estimated £8 trillion is thought to be stored in offshore accounts costing countries billions of pounds in taxes a year.
The OECD has a blacklist of countries that do not comply with its standards.
It contains only Liechtenstein, Andorra and Monaco. But France and Germany, in particular, want others, including Switzerland, to be added.
The Swiss government will be hoping today's concessions will quell much of the anger ahead of the G20 meeting.
Switzerland said it would waive confidentiality of account holders if government investigators have "concrete information" including the name of the bank and the assets involved in alleged wrongdoing.
This is the first time Switzerland has agreed to sign up to the OECD rules having previously argued it would compromise its long-standing banking secrecy rules.
It remains to be seen what impact it will have on UBS and its talks with the US authorities.
US officials are investigating 52,000 UBS account holders over suspected tax evasion but the bank has so far only provided details of 300 American customers.
Reader views (5)
switzerland was the rhodesia of europe - it is now the zimbabwe of europe.
- Kimon, monaco, 14/03/2009 05:57
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The USA cannot bow to the wishes of the EU and their high tax regimes. the reason why they want the Swiss banks out of the picture is so they can raise taxes. Soon, we will follow. Those rich people would gladly pay some taxes. But not when the taxes are spent by a bunch of liberal baffoons.
The other banks in the world should emulate the Swiss, not try to destroy them. If all countries were "tax havens", the citizens would keep their money at home.
All these high tax liberal socialist countries would rather destroy the Swiss banks than to COMPETE with them. What happened to the US competitive spirit. Our desire to be competitive has been the reason why we are so great. Let's COMPETE with the Swiss. Let's have an incentive for our US citizens to keep their money in the USA. Let's beat the Swiss at their own game.
Senator Levin spent years trying to force the Swiss to give up the names of US citizens that have accounts at Swiss banks. If he would have spent all that time and our taxpayer money finding ways to COMPETE with them, we wouldn't be talking about it today. If the Swiss have no privacy, look for a world-wide surge in taxes
- Bowater, chicago, USA, 14/03/2009 03:49
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Been Pxxxed off for the last ten years or so, seeing beneficiaries & trusts of SPV's avoiding huge tax liabilities because the investors were prepared to pay large fees to KPMG, Touche,PWC etc for so called 'advice'.
- Mikey, Tring UK, 13/03/2009 21:40
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Well its good to know that Swiss banks are going to ease secrecy; now we might learn where the front doors to the banks are.
- Mickyinlondon, london, 13/03/2009 16:02
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"Blind Trusts" for corrupt M.P's & Cabinet Ministers to flout the law but for no-one else!Is this Brown's idea of Transparency?
- Harvey Lawrence, London UK, 13/03/2009 15:16
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