In a speech aimed at silencing many EU critics and ending mounting foreign pressure, the Chairman of the Swiss Bankers Association (SBA), Pierre Mirabaud, vehemently defended Switzerland’s stance on banking secrecy and his own belief in bank-client confidentiality.
The 95th General Assembly of the Swiss Bankers Association held in the Stade de Suisse in Bern proved the perfect stage for Mirabaud to denounce his critics and firmly uphold his convictions.
Arguing that protecting privacy was a fundamental human need, Mirabaud remained undeterred: Switzerland, a state founded on the rule of law, would not deviate from the principle of treating native citizens and foreigners alike.
Financial privacy is firmly rooted within Switzerland and is considered an opportunity and not a risk for Switzerland and the Swiss financial centre.
Emphasising the distinction in Swiss law between tax evasion – which is not a criminal offence in Switzerland – and tax fraud he stressed that it would be the electorate that decided upon the future of banking secrecy and not foreigners.
Turning his criticism and concerns on others, Mirabaud reiterated his concerns that Germany has set a worrying precedent by paying for information about the German clients of a Liechtenstein bank, contained on a data disc obtained by “dubious” means.
It is said that the German intelligence service paid in the region of EUR5.5mn for the data disc, which was stolen by a former employee of LGT Bank in Liechtenstein, a country that also upholds strict banking secrecy laws. Data on the discs also found its way into the hands of tax collectors in several other countries, including, among others, the UK, the US, Canada, France and Australia, with, it is understood, substantial sums of money handed over by these governments in most cases.
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