Majority Of Swiss Supportive Of The Nation's Banking Industry
by Ulrika Lomas, Tax-News.com, Brussels
04 March 2004

The Swiss banking industry continues to enjoy a good reputation amongst the domestic population, the overwhelming majority of which remains in favour of retaining banking confidentiality, the Swiss Bankers Association Survey 2004 has revealed.

The 2004 survey shows that respondents estimated that the banks made more of a contribution to the economy during 2003. 63% of those questioned consider banking to be the most important branch of the Swiss economy, up 3% compared to the 2003 survey.

Furthermore, 80% agree that the Swiss financial centre enjoys a good professional reputation abroad (up 3% from 2003), and 80% – the same figure as last year – consider the banks to be important employers in Switzerland. Meanwhile, 75% agree that banks make an important contribution to Switzerland’s tax revenues.

The banking sector’s reputation at home has also improved in comparison with a year ago, with 53% of those polled revealing they have a “positive“ or “very positive“ opinion of the banks (against 49% in 2003).

As in previous years, the survey reveals that the strengths of the Swiss financial centre are considered to lie in its trustworthiness (66%) and security (67%), as well as in the competence of its workforce (63%). Once again, however, respondents say banks could improve their commitment to and support of small and medium-sized enterprises. In this respect, 58% said banks do too little for SMEs. However, 65% were of this view a year ago.

The 2004 survey once again clearly shows that the Swiss attach great importance to the protection of their financial data. An overwhelming majority of 88% believe that protecting the confidentiality of financial data vis-a-vis third parties is correct. Specifically asked about bank client confidentiality, 76% say they are in favour of maintaining it. This figure is fractionally lower than that of 2003 and may be explained by the fact that there has been less public discussion of the topic during the period in question.

In addition, 68% (2003: 59%) believe it probable that bank client confidentiality will still exist in its present form in five years’ time, leading the survey to conclude that bank client confidentiality enjoys strong support amongst the Swiss.

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