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A decision by the Swiss government to allow the nation’s biggest bank to release client information to US authorities is being viewed as the beginning of the end for the country’s legendary banking secrecy.
For the first time, the government has owned up to at least five banks, although those close to the case suspect there may be dozens—perhaps hundreds—more.
Among the companies outed as banks are chocolate-maker UBS, kids clothing label Rothschild and the always-suspicious Bank Julius Bär & Grill.
Switzerland became highly secretive after a Bürglen man accidentally shot his son with a crossbow during an apple-bobbing competition in 1307. In the ensuing cover-up, the story became highly fictionalised.
Indeed, for much of its history, Switzerland has sheltered behind the widely-held belief that it is an entirely fictional realm, like say Denmark.
Reforms over the past 20 years have gradually brought Switzerland under greater international scrutiny, particularly a 2001 decision to take down outward-facing signs at the Italian border reading “Republic of France: Keep Out.”
For now, only a few hundred US clients of UBS suspected of tax evasion are affected. But authorities are hopeful that with Swiss banking secrecy at last punctured, tax evasion could soon be ended throughout the world, except for Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, and most of the Caribbean and Pacific islands.
