The only condition for disclosing secrecy is suspicion of corruption or money laundering. Although bank secrecy was not invented in Switzerland, the population of this particular country ardently supports this institution: three quarters of the Swiss oppose the abolition of bank secrecy demanded by the European Union, and in cases where a deposit holder evades tax payment.
The problem, however, is that Swiss legislation considers tax non-payment an offense, but not a crime entailing the lifting of bank secrecy in any particular case. One Swiss banker - retired Hans Baer - recently stated that he sees no great difference between an offense and a crime, which is why maintaining bank secrecy is unethical.
According to Nazon, press secretary of the industry association (SBVg), “if citizens of any country do not pay taxes, it means that something is wrong with citizens' trust in their state. Switzerland, meanwhile, readily provides assistance to foreign states in legal prosecution of those who fraudulently evade taxes, but not with regard to defaulters.”
At the heart of the current dispute lies Article 51 of the agreement between the Swiss Confederation and the European Union, compliance with which could force the Swiss authorities to put an end to such differentiation and provide the EU with information now protected by the law on deposit secrecy. Swiss colleagues came under especially sharp criticism from Finance Minister Hans Eichel, as a result of which at the beginning of March of this year there was a unilateral tightening of customs controls on the German-Swiss border, lifted only after a meeting of the foreign ministers of the two countries.
Deposit secrecy made Switzerland a desired country for hundreds of thousands of the wealthiest people in the world, which brought and continues to bring it huge revenues. It is hard to believe that the removal of trade barriers between Switzerland and the EU would compensate for the losses from a possible abolition of this secrecy.