Banking in Switzerland

Modern secrecy
Switzerland, considered the "grandfather of bank secrecy", has been one of the largest offshore financial centers and tax havens in the world since the mid-20th century.^[24] Despite an international push to meaningfully roll back banking secrecy laws in the country, Swiss political forces have minimized and reverted much of the proposed roll backs.^[24] Disclosing client information has been considered a serious social and criminal offense since the early 1900s.^[24] Whistleblowers, despite legal protections, often face professional set backs in Switzerland.^[24][25] Swiss bankers who maintain offices exclusively in Switzerland are shielded from a foreign state's lawsuits, extradition requests, and criminal charges, as long as they remain within the country's legal jurisdiction.^[21] In spite of minor adjustments to bank secrecy, bankers working in Switzerland and abroad at Swiss banks "have long adhered to an unwritten code similar to that observed by doctors or priests".^[1] Switzerland's main lingual hubs, Geneva (for French), Lugano (for Italian), and Zürich (for German) service the different geographical markets.^[24] It consistently ranks in the top three states on the Financial Secrecy Index and was named first many times, most recently in 2018.^[24] The Swiss Bankers Association estimated in 2018 that Swiss banks held US$6.5 trillion in assets or 25% of all global cross-border assets.^[24] These secrecy laws have linked the Swiss banking system with individuals and institutions seeking to illegally evade taxes, hide assets, or generally commit financial crime.^[26]
Secrecy laws have been violated by four people since 1934: Christoph Meili (1997), Bradley Birkenfeld (2007), Rudolf Elmer (2011), and Hervé Falciani (2014).^[1] In all four cases, the whistleblowers were served with federal arrest warrants, fined, and sustained professional setbacks in Switzerland.