Swiss to end secret bank accounts

[nickh]

Switzerland has NOT decided to "end secret bank accounts".

From a BBC News article:

"while it will now abide by international rules on bank data sharing, it said it would only respond to "concrete and justified" requests." http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7941717.stm

[zupatol]

'The end of the banking secret' was yesterday's headline of 'le temps', the most serious newspaper of the french speaking part of Switzerland. I didn't read the paper, but I watched a debate on television. The main thing that changes is that Switzerland drops the distinction between tax evasion (not mentioning some of your money) and tax fraud (forging documents). Now both are illegal.

This article is weird, it quotes the times of london as its source and gets the capital of Switzerland wrong (it's Berne, not Zurich).

[jwilliams]

Plus - This isn't really huge news, and the reputation of Swiss bank secrecy is a little outdated - e.g. The US and Swiss authorities have been co-operating around Tax information for some time. Similarly, it's still incumbent on the Swiss to track and act on illegal flows of money (and they do).... It's still far from transparent, but it's not the citadel that some people think.

[katz]

This is sad. One of the few places where banks still acted in their clients' interest rather than their own or the government's.

All interaction between your lawyer and you or your doctor and you is private? Why not the same for you and your banker?

[sethg]

If you conspire with your doctor or your lawyer to commit a crime, then your discussions in furtherance of that conspiracy are not privileged.

[idont]

Intersting fact: Many US customers want to get a "local" nationality to be no more American so that they can escape from all the US regulation.

[steveplace]

Off to Singapore, I suppose.

[numair]

You obviously didn't get the memo last week.

[vinutheraj]

Whoa ... this means I need to change my account as soon as possible! Where else do they have secret accounts ?!

[nicara]

I hear Nigeria is quite the place...

No, on a more serious note, if you need a secret account, something about your attitude towards finances is wrong in the first place.

[HSO]

I don't get it, how is this relevant to HN audience?

[lethain]

It's important to keep in mind that--in the absence of downvotes--scores only mean that content is relatively more relevant than other content surrounding it, not that it is absolutely relevant to our audience. The current voting system encourages diversity, and it's diversity we get.

[known]

Will it help in reviving the economy?