Switzerland eases banking secrecy

Sherri Siegele

I never thought I’d see this happen; not in my lifetime! For the first time in history Switzerland is making slight changes to its policy on secrecy allowing foreign countries to investigate Swiss bank accounts of its citizens. With 2 trillion in its banks there’s a lot to look at! The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has been working at this for years but with global failed banking systems and regulation the new "it" word, the U.S. and Brussels put lots of pressure on the Swiss Government. At the core of this resides a threat that Swiss banks could be blacklisted by financial regimes such as the World Bank. The changed policy is sure to cause Swiss Banks to lose foreign investment but apparently this loss outweighs being blacklisted. The U.S. requested permission to investigate 52,000 of its citizens that have accounts at UBS but it was only granted insight into 300 accounts. It’s estimated that the U.S. loses 1 billion annually to tax evasion. Not only has Switzerland's banking system been changed but so has its culture.