Swiss banking secrecy

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Swiss banking secrecy , even bank customer secret called a legal obligation of the banks, the economic privacy is to protect the customer against third parties and to ensure. The banks and especially their employees are required not to disclose any customer-related bank information. Instead of banking secrecy, Swiss banks speak of bank customer secrecy , since only the customer is protected, not the bank.

On May 6, 2014, Switzerland joined the OECD's declaration on the future automatic exchange of information in tax matters, which largely abolished the strict banking secrecy for which Switzerland was previously somewhat famous.

Legal

Legal basis

"The bank customer has a right to the protection of his economic privacy , the bank is therefore obliged to maintain secrecy about all facts that affect its customers ."

So that defines Swiss Bankers Association , the banking secrecy . Banking secrecy is professional secrecy to which not only the employees of a bank are subject, but also organs, agents or liquidators of a bank, investigators or restructuring agents of the banking commission, and organs or employees of a recognized auditor . Banking secrecy is anchored in Art. 47 of the Federal Act on Banks and Savings Banks (Banking Act, BankG) . The Banking Act forms the basis for a license to operate as a bank . As part of the duty of care, this prescribes regulatory and civil law due diligence as well as confidentiality. One provision for bank supervision is the so-called guarantee article: "The license is granted if [...] the persons entrusted with the administration and management of the bank enjoy a good reputation and offer a guarantee for proper business activity." (Art. 3 para. 2 lit. c BankG)

In addition to the duties associated with working as a bank, there are also duties of care in connection with combating money laundering . In the “Agreement on the Professional Rules on the Due Diligence of Banks (CDB, current version 08)”, also known under the name “Due Diligence Agreement”, the Bankers Association specifies the due diligence obligations laid down in the Money Laundering Act (Art. 3–5 AMLA) and the term “ Due diligence required in the circumstances »when accepting assets (Art. 305ter StGB). In addition to state supervision, the VSB has developed into an expanded self-regulatory instrument with its own supervisory body . This now has extensive sanctioning powers, such as contractual penalties of up to CHF 10 million. In order to be able to carry out proper business activity in accordance with the guarantee article, it is legally essential that the identity of the bank customer and any beneficial owner must be established. There are exceptions, in particular, for resident contractual partners if less than CHF 25,000 is paid in and the account is in a minor, when it comes to depositing a tenant's deposit or founding or increasing the capital of a company.

On December 18, 2015, the Swiss Parliament adopted the Federal Act on the International Automatic Exchange of Information in Tax Matters (AIAG) ; this came into force on January 1, 2017. Since then, Swiss financial institutions subject to the obligation to report have been collecting account information from tax residents in 38 partner countries (including the EU countries ). In December 2017, the Swiss Parliament passed the federal resolutions on the introduction of the automatic exchange of information (AEOI) with other partner countries from 2018/2019, so that the Swiss financial institutions will collect account information from January 1, 2018 with regard to a further 38 partner countries (including Hong Kong and Singapore ) which will be exchanged for the first time in autumn 2019. With the AEOI, the information about accounts and securities accounts of financial institutions is reported to the national tax authorities. These then exchange the information with the tax authorities of their AEI partner states. The responsibility for collecting taxes therefore lies entirely with the tax authorities of the AEI partner countries.

See also: Agreement on professional ethics on the banks' duty of care (VSB 03)

Territorial principle

The principle of territoriality under international law limits Swiss banking secrecy to the national territory of Switzerland. Swiss banking secrecy does not de jure prevent foreign authorities from accessing data that is viewed abroad (see SWIFT ). In Switzerland, breaches of secrecy committed abroad can be sanctioned. Foreign authorities are prohibited from conducting investigations on Swiss territory outside of the legal aid channels. The perpetrators can be punished for “prohibited acts for a foreign state” (Art. 271 StGB) and “economic intelligence service” (Art. 273 StGB). The territorial principle is punishably undermined by copying data from Swiss bank customers and then passing them on to foreign countries.

Criminal provisions

Breaches of banking secrecy are regulated in the Banking Act (BankG, Art. 47). In contrast to other professional secrets, they represent an official offense. This means that the police or the judicial authorities are obliged to initiate criminal prosecution if they become aware of a criminal offense . In the event of a deliberate violation of banking secrecy, the guilty bank employee is punished with up to five years' imprisonment or a fine. If the violation is negligent, the offender will be punished with a fine of up to 250,000 francs. As the tax dispute with Germany, for example (see section Outlook ) shows, there may be additional penal provisions that may cumulate.

The bank is also liable for damages in accordance with OR 398, which refers to Article 337b (1) of labor law. It literally says "[...] has to pay full compensation , taking into account all [...] arising claims". In the private sector, the damage is usually difficult to quantify, for example if information has been passed on to unauthorized family members. It is easier to assess the damage in the business area, for example if a bank customer loses an order to a competitor because of a breach of banking secrecy.

In addition to the relatively strict laws, there are now criminal norms that relativize banking secrecy, for example intercantonal and international legal assistance . This means that legal assistance can be requested as soon as a criminal offense has been met in Switzerland. This legal assistance is used in the case of insider crime , price manipulation , money laundering , organized crime or corruption offenses .

Withholding tax (VST)

So-called withholding tax exists so that Swiss taxpayers can tax their assets despite banking secrecy . This VST is a withholding tax that is levied on interest income from accounts , loans , stocks and bonds . If the owner declares his securities on the tax return , he gets the withholding tax back. In Switzerland, the withholding tax is 35 percent, which is one of the highest percentages in Europe. No withholding tax is levied on assets invested abroad, e.g. foreign securities. On the other hand, a withholding tax in the form of a withholding tax is levied on certain property income for EU citizens residing in the EU.

Savings tax agreement with the EU

In the European Union (EU) there have been efforts since 1989 to standardize the taxation of interest income within its territory. In order to prevent taxpayers from EU countries from circumventing the directive on investments in financial centers outside the EU, the EU is interested in working with certain third countries. This also includes Switzerland.

The savings tax dossier is part of the second tranche of the bilateral agreements between Switzerland and the EU , which were signed by Switzerland and the EU on October 26, 2004 in Luxembourg. These came into force on July 1, 2005.

Accordingly, a tax withholding of initially 15 percent, from July 2008 20 percent and from July 2011 onwards, is applied to all interest payments made by a paying agent located in Switzerland - for example a bank - to a natural person with tax residence in an EU member state 35 percent deducted. 75 percent of the income from the withholding tax goes to the EU or its member states. The withholding tax is automatically deducted by the bank in the same way as withholding tax and periodically submitted to the federal government as a collective amount.

In most cases, this is to ensure that the planned EU regulation cannot be circumvented by Switzerland and that the Swiss legal system and banking secrecy are preserved. In practice, the EU countries do not receive the hoped-for amounts from EU withholding tax, as many financial products are not subject to withholding tax, for example dividends .

Limits to banking secrecy

There are certain exceptions when the secrecy and thus the banking secrecy is lifted:

  • an inheritance requires information about the testator's circumstances
  • a spouse receives information about the savings by court ruling
  • Federal and cantonal regulations force the bank to testify in court proceedings, which means that they have to participate as a witness in the criminal proceedings. The obligation to provide evidence eliminates the illegality of the violation of banking secrecy. Cantonal procedural rights, in turn, can grant banks the right to refuse to testify. In this case, the banker must refuse to testify.
  • According to debt collection and bankruptcy law, the bank must provide information to debt collection and bankruptcy offices if a foreclosure is in progress against the customer.

Banking secrecy is not waived for Swiss taxpayers in the case of “ tax evasion ” defined in Switzerland (corresponding to the German “tax reduction”). This so-called simple tax offense consists in the fact that the taxpayer does not declare assets or income. Here the tax authorities have to request the necessary documents from the taxpayer. If the taxpayer does not comply with the requests, he will be assessed and given a fine. The situation is different with tax fraud, this is a qualified tax violation, called "tax evasion" in the German legal system. In this offense, the taxpayer submits forged documents (for example, wage statements, property or securities register) in order to deceive the tax authorities. This leads to cantonal criminal prosecution, in which, as mentioned above, the bank is obliged to give evidence and banking secrecy can be lifted. Because of the Holocaust, the search for the owners of dormant assets was lifted from banking secrecy, because in this particular case the return of the money was given higher priority than the secrecy of the names of the former owners.

Legal bases that relativize banking secrecy

The Swiss laws have been adapted several times to enable a better fight against criminal activities. From 1994 a bank was allowed to report to the criminal authorities if there was a suspicion of criminal activity and in 1997 these reports to the reporting office for money laundering became compulsory.

The Money Laundering Act (GwG) has been in force since 1998 . This means that there is an increased duty of care. Financial intermediaries must report any justified suspicion. The banks are of the opinion that the Swiss Money Laundering Act, which has been in force since 1997, is the toughest in the world.

Potentate money

The following potentate funds were frozen in Swiss banks in the past:

  • Jean-Claude Duvalier , former dictator in Haiti - Displaced in 1986 and alleged to have eased his country by $ 500 million. The US $ 6.3 million transferred during his escape to Switzerland were confiscated there. When the Federal Act on the Restitution of Unlawfully Acquired Assets from Politically Exposed Persons (RuVG) came into force on February 1, 2011, Duvalier funds were still blocked on the basis of this law. Based on the RuVG, Switzerland opened a collection procedure at the Federal Administrative Court in April 2011 . On September 24, 2013, this upheld the recovery action. The repatriation of the money to the Haitian population had not yet been completed in January 2017.
  • Imelda and Ferdinand Marcos , former dictator of the Philippines († 1989) - In 1986 US $ 600 million was blocked in Swiss accounts. This money was returned to the Philippines in 2003.
  • Mobutu Sese Seko , former President of Congo / Zaire († 1997) - As of May 1997, US $ 6 million was blocked in Switzerland, out of a total of 5 billion in assets that had been cheated. His villa on Lake Geneva was auctioned and the money was transferred to a blocked account. A Swiss creditor is trying to confiscate the proceeds from the sale of the Mobutu villa to repay debt and has been granted the first instance.
  • Sani Abacha , former military dictator of Nigeria († 1998) - After his death, US $ 700 million was blocked in Swiss accounts. Most of the funds were returned to Nigeria by 2009, but the agreed use of the funds for development projects did not work properly because it had already been spent before the disbursement.
  • Vladimiro Montesinos , former Peruvian intelligence chief - Before he was overthrown in autumn 2000, his accounts were blocked. Investigations revealed that bribes from arms deliveries had been directed to Luxembourg, the USA and Switzerland. Thanks to a regime change in Peru, 113 million Swiss francs were repaid three years later.
  • Charles Taylor , former dictator of Liberia - He was expelled in 2003. Due to a request for legal aid from the UN, two million francs were blocked in Switzerland.
  • José Eduardo dos Santos has very likely enriched himself with a rescheduling of the Angolan national debt with Russia through accounts of two arms dealers. In connection with this affair, from 2002 US $ 750 million flowed via Switzerland to Russia, which declared that it had not suffered any damage. 21 million blocked at the time went back to Angola.

Since July 1, 2016, the Federal Act on the Freezing and Restitution of Unlawfully Acquired Assets (SRVG) has been regulating the issue of potentate money until it is returned.

Supervisory bodies

When the new banking law was created in 1934, the banks had to consent to be checked by the Federal Banking Commission . There is no banking secrecy vis-à-vis the state supervisory authority, which has been the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority FINMA since January 1, 2009 . It may request information from the banks insofar as it falls under the supervision of FINMA. FINMA uses this instrument to check whether a debtor is creditworthy or whether a customer is suspicious and whether the bank is complying with its guidelines. FINMA can also provide customer-related information abroad. This happens, for example, in the case of stock exchange transactions, suspicion of insider trading or price manipulation.

For a number of years there has also been a so-called on-site inspection. This means that a foreign authority can control a branch of a bank from its own country in Switzerland. However, the private banking sector is excluded from this rule in order to protect banking secrecy in the tax area and not to unsettle customers. The problem here is that financial market supervision is still nationally oriented, while there are hardly any crimes that are not cross-border. Most of the time, the crime is committed abroad and the money then ends up in Switzerland.

Swiss banking secrecy and the EU

The fact that Switzerland , but also Austria , Belgium , Luxembourg , the Channel Islands and miniature states such as Monaco and Liechtenstein have a highly protected banking secrecy is a thorn in the side of other EU members . Above all, EU member states are opposed to the fact that their citizens move money to one of the countries mentioned in order to smuggle it past the tax authorities.

As part of the bilateral agreements with the EU, Switzerland undertook to provide legal assistance in the evasion of indirect taxes (namely sales tax ). When it comes to indirect taxes, it is definitely tax fraud and banking secrecy is lifted.

On May 27, 2015, the EU and Switzerland signed a far-reaching tax agreement. After that, all account details have been communicated to each other since 2018. The data includes names, addresses, tax number and date of birth as well as information on the account balance and interest income or dividends. So it was over for EU citizens with Swiss banking secrecy.

Swiss banking secrecy and the USA

Due to massive threats from the USA to prosecute eleven Swiss banks for aiding and abetting tax evasion, the Council of States and the National Council approved so-called group inquiries under the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act ( FATCA ) in March 2012 . On June 12, 2013, the Council of States adopted the so-called “Lex USA” by 24 votes to 15, with 2 abstentions. Since June 2014, Switzerland has been providing administrative assistance if a request from the USA relates to a group of persons not otherwise named and suspicion is based on special “behavioral patterns”. The banks concerned then reveal the names of the suspects.

history

Banking secrecy is based on a centuries-old culture of secrecy in the commercial transactions of private banks. The civil code of Switzerland regulates personal rights; ZGB 27/28 protects the financial situation as part of the private sphere .

Bank secrecy was formally enshrined in the “ Federal Law on Banks and Savings Banks ” (passed on November 8, 1934, entered into force on March 1, 1935). It is usually called the 'Banking Act' for short.

After the Swiss People's Bank was rescued by the state of Switzerland in December 1933, the banking system was placed under greater state control - also because of public pressure. This required a legal basis.

During the First World War , too , many wealthy foreigners brought their money to Switzerland. For example, inflation began in Germany in 1914 and culminated in hyperinflation and currency reform in 1923. During the Great Depression, the surrounding states began to manage foreign currency ; these states wanted to know whether their citizens had assets in Switzerland. However, the Swiss banks refused to provide information. Germany and France began to make greater efforts to prevent capital flight . In 1932 a Swiss bank director of a Basel bank was arrested in Paris who was carrying a list of customers. The list became known; an extensive list of French investors in Switzerland became known; there was a scandal in France. Many famous French people were on the list, for example the Peugeot families. This incident prompted an amendment to the law in Switzerland, which made the disclosure of customer data a criminal offense (fine of up to CHF 50,000).

In the German Reich , the Nazi regime made the export of capital subject to high penalties, including the death penalty (the Reich had a chronic shortage of foreign currency; initially as a result of the global economic crisis , later through the armament of the Wehrmacht ). Among other things, this led the Swiss government to want to strengthen banking secrecy. In return, the Swiss banks had to agree to allow themselves to be checked by the banking commission from now on.

In 1941, all assets were blocked in the USA that came from states that cooperated with the Axis powers or were neutral. This affected Swiss assets to the extent of around CHF 5 billion. In 1943, the pressure on Switzerland from the Allies , especially from the USA, increased because Swiss banks had apparently taken over looted gold from the German Reichsbank and German assets had been moved to Switzerland. After the Second World War , the demand came that German assets should be surrendered to the victorious powers. For this purpose, an Allied delegation from the Tripartite Gold Commission came to Switzerland, which registered the relevant accounts and made these data available to the Allies. This led to criticism from the legal and banking world of Switzerland because it had lifted banking secrecy. When the Washington Agreement was implemented in 1946, Switzerland managed to come to a solution with which, among other things, German owners could get their money back without the data becoming known to the world public. This kept the fictitious damage to banking secrecy within limits.

After the end of the war, Switzerland was an island of interest; interest rates were lower than in the rest of Europe. This disadvantage was offset by the advantages of “safe land” and banking secrecy.

In the early 1960s, a violent campaign was waged against Switzerland when it was proven that there were a large number of so-called dormant wealth accounts from the Second World War (at least in part, flight money or the assets of Holocaust victims). A registration decision of the Federal Council in 1962 decreed that banks must search for dormant assets and report them. When the reporting deadline expired, there was another dispute. The money was used to feed a fund, the proceeds of which were intended for reparation in the broadest sense. The climate worsened in general and the OECD criticized Switzerland for believing that tax evaders were being offered too much backing. In November 1966, Switzerland started a PR campaign in the “Bulletin” magazine of the Schweizerische Kreditanstalt (now Credit Suisse ) with the essay “On Swiss banking secrecy” with the demonstrably false argument that Switzerland has a humanitarian tradition and that it has banking secrecy created in the 1930s to protect Jewish assets from the Nazi regime. Contrary to popular belief today (as of 2005), this myth does not apply.

In 2016, Beat Kappeler wrote in the NZZ am Sonntag: “The USA is the world's largest oasis for people who seek protection from banking secrecy. This was researched by experts from the Bloomberg agency this week. But Switzerland was stabbed by the same USA. A legal move with particular cunning was used. The USA pushed through the information about bank accounts in the OECD, the club of rich countries, but did not endorse it. All other banking secrets are thus nullified, only the empire does not participate. "

The Chiasso scandal

In 1977 the so-called SKA scandal, which was also known as ChiassoSKAndal , became known. In the Chiasso branch of the then Schweizerische Kreditanstalt, employees produced losses of around 2 billion francs through interest rate manipulation. The other big banks rushed to help because the damage to their image from the collapse of one big bank would have been too great. There was a growing awareness among the population that such an important financial center also has disadvantages if, for example, it produces a scandal. It was also recognized that due diligence requirements for financial institutions needed to be improved significantly. The above-mentioned due diligence agreement (CDB) was an important result. The self-imposed duty of care brought the crisis to an end quickly.

The SKA scandal led to a popular initiative by the Swiss Social Democratic Party , which aimed to abolish banking secrecy. In the 1984 vote, however, this initiative was rejected with 73 percent no votes.

Outlook and debate

Swiss banking secrecy has always been controversial internationally (see section history ). In response to international pressure from the G20 and the OECD , the Swiss government decided on March 13, 2009 to adopt the OECD standard for administrative assistance in tax matters in accordance with Article 26 of the OECD Model Tax Convention. From now on, Switzerland will provide administrative assistance with all tax offenses, including tax evasion. The distinction between tax fraud and tax evasion in relation to foreign customers is no longer necessary. Administrative assistance is bound by strict rules that correspond to the international guidelines of the OECD. Administrative assistance is only granted in response to a justified request and in individual cases. Nothing will change for taxpayers in Switzerland. The first ten revised double taxation agreements that adopt the OECD standard will be submitted to the Swiss parliament for ratification in June.

As part of the tax dispute in 2009 and early 2010 with various countries, especially with Italy , France , the USA and Germany , as well, both fee and free of charge in the case of various media, which are given as information to foreign tax authorities Hervé Falciani , fell Swiss banking secrecy under domestic political pressure. In particular, the planned data acquisition by Germany has increased this significantly, also because it must be expected that Germany could maintain this practice in the future.

High-ranking politicians from the SP , FDP and some of the CVP have said that changes would have to be made in order to secure the Swiss financial center in the long term, with ideas ranging from comprehensive double taxation agreements and automatic exchange of information to the abolition of banking secrecy for foreigners. SVP politicians want to maintain banking secrecy for the most part and defend it against strong resistance from abroad. Alfred Heer even goes so far that if Germany buys data, he wants to abolish banking secrecy for German politicians, parties and trade unions in order to put pressure on German decision-makers not to do so.

On February 7, 2010, the finance minister of Switzerland, Hans-Rudolf Merz ( FDP ), called for a debate on the automatic exchange of information, which would amount to the dissolution of Swiss banking secrecy for foreigners on a bilateral level. The Swiss population, who for the most part consider banking secrecy to be a cultural achievement of Switzerland, is very much at odds with a possible end to banking secrecy, although this should only apply to foreigners. The German finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble has expressed his view that banking secrecy has no future in Europe, and the Italian finance minister Giulio Tremonti believes that Swiss banking secrecy should no longer exist. According to the Swiss media, a few banks and insurance companies in Switzerland are preparing for an end to banking secrecy and creating business models that either do not include tax reductions or enable this without banking secrecy, such as life insurance coats ( asset wrapper ).

"You will grit your teeth at this banking secrecy."

- Swiss Finance Minister Hans-Rudolf Merz on March 19, 2008
Estimate of the origin (residence) of the money invested in Switzerland according to Helvea, in billions of Swiss francs

"At some point we have to have this discussion [about banking secrecy]."

- Swiss Finance Minister Hans-Rudolf Merz on February 7, 2010

«The tax dispute between Switzerland and Germany is not a culture war. Rather, the banking lobby succeeded in establishing a patriotism of banking secrecy within Switzerland. "

- Business ethicist Ulrich Thielemann on November 26, 2012

Banking secrecy and the Swiss economy

The financial sector with banks and insurance companies is of great importance for the Swiss economy. In 2009 it accounted for 11 percent of the gross domestic product in Switzerland and 200,000 people find work there, 135,900 of them in the banking sector. The combined total corresponds to 6 percent of all employees in Switzerland. The financial center (including employees and shareholders) together pays an estimated 14 to 18 billion Swiss francs in direct and indirect taxes . This corresponds to over 12 to 15 percent of all federal, cantonal and communal tax revenues. However, there are also fears in Switzerland that focusing on the financial center will damage the workplace, especially in the case of international sanctions. Since there are no official figures on undeclared funds in Swiss banks, estimates should be treated with caution. According to estimates by Helvea (see diagram), four trillion Swiss francs are invested in Switzerland, 55 percent of which are not from Switzerland. According to the study, around 80 percent of the money from the EU invested in Switzerland is invested in black. On this assumption, Anne-Marie de Weck , President of the Association of Geneva Private Bankers , board member of the Association of Swiss Private Bankers , partner of the private bank Banque Lombard Odier & Cie : “That cannot be true. You never really know. In our bank, the share of untaxed funds should be below 10 percent. " The Swiss ex-banker Hans J. Bär said in his autobiography, published in 2004, that banking secrecy spared Switzerland from competition and gave it an artificial locational advantage. He paraphrased this with the words “fat, but impotent” and made it clear that the Swiss banks did not need this at all.

There are various reasons for the strong international integration of the financial center:

  • the central location of Switzerland in Europe, possibility of cash transfer
  • Preserving privacy, including financial privacy
  • The neutral and independent system is seen as a security factor for money from third countries .
  • the high political and economic stability
  • The Swiss franc is one of the most stable currencies. In times of global political or economic crisis, it is considered a safe haven currency, which means that investors invest their money in Swiss francs for protection. It is also considered a hard currency and a “safe haven”.

See also

literature

Documentaries

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.oecd.org/mcm/MCM-2014-Declaration-Tax.pdf
  2. ↑ Automatic exchange of information ( AEOI ) on www.admin.ch
  3. ↑ Presentation by Federal Councilor Hans-Rudolf Merz, Compétitivité de la place financière , Bern Bankers Day of September 14, 2006
  4. ↑ SR 952.0 Federal Law on Banks and Savings Banks: Art. 47 , in: admin.ch , as of January 1, 2016, accessed on January 12, 2016.
  5. ↑ Return of illegally acquired assets Website of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs FDFA, January 5, 2017
  6. ^ The Guardian on Mobutu's assets according to Transparancy International
  7. ↑ Tagesschau February 2010
  8. ^ The Bern Declaration on the Angola Case ( Memento from July 15, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 31 kB)
  9. ↑ EDI press release in 2005
  10. ↑ Switzerland is strengthening its dispositive against money from potentates Federal Council website , May 25, 2016
  11. ↑ Potentate Money website of the Swiss Bankers Association , accessed on March 26, 2017
  12. ^ Finance ministers defend banking secrecy , in: NZZ Online of March 8, 2009.
  13. ↑ Tagesschau (ARD) : Dispute over banking secrets - Steinbrück vs. Oases and paradises ( memento of March 11, 2009 in the Internet Archive ), tagesschau.de , March 10, 2009.
  14. ↑ Off for Swiss banking secrecy . In: tagesschau.de . May 27, 2015. Retrieved May 27, 2015.
  15. ↑ Agreement from 2018: EU abolishes Swiss banking secrecy . In: focus.de . May 27, 2015. Retrieved May 27, 2015.
  16. ↑ Council of States says yes to "Lex USA". Neue Zürcher Zeitung, June 12, 2013, accessed on June 13, 2013 .
  17. ↑ Tagesschau (ARD): Special regulation for US citizens ( memento of March 7, 2012 in the Internet Archive ), tagesschau.de, March 5, 2012.
  18. ↑ FATCA Agreement ( Memento of December 5, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Website of the Federal Council / State Secretariat for International Financial Matters SIF, as of November 8, 2016
  19. ↑ Message from the Federal Council to the Federal Assembly regarding the draft federal law on banks and savings banks (dated February 2, 1934)
  20. ↑ The bank secret owes its birth to a rescue operation by the state . In: NZZ am Sonntag , March 1, 2009, p. 11.
  21. ↑ see also Walther Hofer , Herbert R. Reginbogin: Hitler, der Westen und die Schweiz 1936-1945. Verlag Neue Zürcher Zeitung 2001, ISBN 978-3858238825 , review here . Abstract available
  22. ↑ Tages-Anzeiger : With a clever PR campaign on the myth of February 12, 2010
  23. ^ Robert U. Vogler: The Swiss bank secret: origin, meaning, myth. ( Memento from April 1, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 469 kB) 2005
  24. ↑ Switzerland was ripped off by the USA, NZZ on Sunday, January 31, 2016
  25. ^ The weekly newspaper : Tax haven «The failure is visible» from February 5, 2010
  26. ^ Federal Department of Finance of March 13, 2010 ( Memento of December 27, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  27. ↑ NZZ : Crumbling defensive wall of banking secrecy from February 4, 2010
  28. ↑ Swiss television : customer data affair accelerates discussion about banking secrecy on February 2, 2010
  29. ↑ SVP denounces double standards for tax evaders CDs: Initiative to abolish banking secrecy for Germans , NZZ , February 16, 2010
  30. ^ SF Tagesschau : Merz calls for a debate on the exchange of information on February 7, 2010
  31. ^ Süddeutsche Zeitung : Tax affair: Swiss schizophrenia of February 9, 2010
  32. ↑ Frankfurter Rundschau : Switzerland: With banking secrecy, the fun stops from February 8, 2010
  33. ↑ Süddeutsche Zeitung : Schäuble: “Bank secrecy is at the end - also in Switzerland” from February 5, 2010
  34. ↑ Tages-Anzeiger : Tremonti: “Banking secrecy must no longer exist” from December 23, 2009
  35. ↑ Fatherland (Liechtenstein): Black money trick with life insurance in Liechtenstein from February 15, 2010
  36. ↑ SPIEGEL Online : “You will grit your teeth on banking secrecy” from March 19, 2008.
  37. ↑ Swiss television : “880 billion black money in Switzerland” of February 8, 2010
  38. ^ SF Tagesschau : Merz calls for a debate on the exchange of information on February 7, 2010
  39. ↑ The bank infiltration . Article by Ulrich Thielemann from November 26, 2012 in The European magazine , accessed on November 26, 2012
  40. ^ The Swiss financial center and its importance. (PDF) In: Swiss Bankers Association . September 22, 2010, archived from the original on November 11, 2011 ; Retrieved December 20, 2010 .
  41. ↑ Tages-Anzeiger : «We have to find out the whole truth» Article from June 11, 2010, accessed on June 12, 2010
  42. ↑ Hans J. Bär : Be embraced, millions. A life between Pearl Harbor and Ground Zero. Orell Füssli , Zurich 2004, ISBN 3280060419 .
  43. ↑ Süddeutsche Zeitung : A Swiss banker attacks banking secrecy on March 26, 2004