[cmutel]

I'm an American living in Switzerland for over 10 years, and this was definitely my impression as well. But that isn't really the case anymore here - you can no longer have anonymous (i.e. only numbered) accounts, and Switzerland is no longer a preferred locations for dirty money.

The ironic thing is that one of those new hot spots, in addition to the usual suspects like Cyprus, the Caribbean, etc., is the USA. See https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/interactive/2021/wyo... for some juicy details.

[zimbatm]

The reason the Swiss value their privacy from the Government is because of a surveillance scandal that happened in 1989. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secret_files_scandal

Of course, privacy enabled the bankers to do shady things, but this wasn't the initial motivation. Swiss people value their privacy overall.

[stavros]

As far as I know, Cyprus complies with FATCA/CRS as much as anyone else (unless the "anyone else" is, as you say, the US).

[seanmcdirmid]

FACTA would only apply to Americans and permanent residents right? It isn’t hard to imagine that America is a good place for non-Americans to stash money, but that trick really wouldn’t work for Americans themselves. For example, the Canadian and American housing markets have been a good place to launder dirty or gray Chinese money into real estate.