In recent years Switzerland has come under increased pressure to loosen its bank secrecy protection and allow foreign governments to obtain information on bank accounts held by its tax payers in Switzerland. After timid first steps initiated in 2009 to grant exchange of information in cases where the information is foreseeably relevant for the enforcement of domestic tax laws, under pressure from the OECD, the EU and the USA, Switzerland seems now to be defining a new strategy for its financial centre which may move away from a strict bank secrecy protection to enhanced transparency and even an automatic information exchange with foreign governments. This article discusses the current initiatives of the Swiss Government in its definition of a new strategy.

By René Bösch (Reference: CapLaw-2013-15)