Kaspar Villiger Hits Out At 'Unacceptable' EU Criticisms

by Philip Morton, Investors Offshore.com

28 June 2002

Swiss Finance Minister, Kaspar Villiger has condemned the tone of recent EU comments on the jurisdiction's banking secrecy regime, dubbing them 'unacceptable'.

Following a G7 meeting in which German Finance Minister, Hans Eichel warned that Switzerland risked isolation if it refused to cooperate with the European Union on banking secrecy and savings taxation, and the somewhat unsuccessful recommencement of the bilateral treaty negotiations between Switzerland and the EU, Mr Villiger bemoaned the fact that the Swiss government's offer to impose a withholding tax on non-resident savings interest has been rejected out of hand.

'For this reason I vigorously reject the harsh criticism of some of my EU colleagues,' he announced this week, adding that: 'This kind of tone is not acceptable among friends.'

The Swissinfo news service reported on Thursday that the Finance Minister told the general meeting of the Swiss Employers' Association at which he was speaking that the integrity of the jurisdiction's finance centre was being called into question by a 'coordinated international campaign', and argued vehemently that Switzerland's banking secrecy laws are in no way designed to shelter terrorist financiers and money launderers.

'I have to ask myself whether our willingness to cooperate has paid off at all,' Villiger mused this week. However, according to Swissinfo, he stressed that the government would maintain its efforts to ensure an amicable agreement with the European Union on the issue.

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