Swiss Economics Expert Slams FT Over Banking Secrecy Article

by Ulrika Lomas, Tax-News.com, Brussels

18 July 2002

In a letter to the Financial Times published on Tuesday, Swiss economics expert Victoria Curzon Price slammed the newspaper for its criticism of Switzerland in an earlier article.

The report condemned the Alpine jurisdiction for sticking to its principles over banking secrecy, arguing that times have changed since Europe was in political turmoil, and that in an 'increasingly borderless Europe, tax authorities need as much financial information about their residents as possible.

However, the Director of the University of Geneva's European Institute hit back angrily, arguing on Tuesday that:

'I can understand that one might wish to invade people's privacy in the name of the war on terrorism: some trade-offs are probably necessary here. But I cannot understand why one should accept an incursion of the state into people's private affairs in the name of tax efficiency, or reduce the principle of bank privacy to some kind of political contingency.'

She warned that if compulsory disclosure of tax and banking information becomes the norm, governments might be tempted to misuse it:

'The more power government has, the greater the temptation to misuse it, the reverse being presumably equally plausible. The best way to keep government honest is to limit its powers,' she concluded, adding that:

'You are assuming that governments the world over operate to the same high moral standard as those of Whitehall and Westminister.'

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