Bankers don't tell: The Swiss government and banks say they have no plans to alter the secrecy code. But given recent damage to the banks' reputation and a changing financial landscape, they may have no choice.

Summary

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Bank secrecy laws, Swiss banks too dependent on foreign investments

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Bankers don't tell: The Swiss government and banks say they have no plans to alter the secrecy code. But given recent damage to the banks' reputation and a changing financial landscape, they may have no choice.

If a referendum were held today on bank secrecy, chances are the majority of Swiss would vote in favor of keeping it, as they did on the last vote in 1984. It matters little to most that the banks' reputation has been tattered by a series of scandals. First there was the Holocaust dormant account debacle. Then the uproar about the deposits of the late Nigerian dictator Sani Abacha and the Russian Mafia money laundering business. More recently the European Union has become more strident in its complaints about the Swiss banks' protection of tax evaders....

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