Banking in Switzerland dates to the early 18th century through Switzerland 's merchant trade and over the centuries has grown into a complex and regulated international industry. Banking is seen as emblematic of Switzerland and the country has been one of the largest offshore financial centers and tax havens in the world since the midth century, with a long history of banking secrecy and client confidentiality reaching back to the early s.
Starting as a way to protect wealthy European banking interests, Swiss banking secrecy was codified in with the passage of a landmark federal law, the Federal Act on Banks and Savings Banks. These laws were used to protect assets of persons being persecuted by Nazi authorities but have also been used by people and institutions seeking to illegally evade taxes , hide assets, or to commit other financial crime.
Controversial protection of foreign accounts and assets during World War II sparked a series of proposed financial regulations seeking to limit bank secrecy, but with little resulting action. Despite various international efforts to roll back banking secrecy laws in the country which were largely minimized or reverted by Swiss social and political forces, in Switzerland agreed to "automatic exchange of information" AEOI with foreign governments and their revenue services regarding information of depositors not resident in Switzerland.
Disclosing client information has been considered by Switzerland a criminal offence since the early s. Employees working in Switzerland and at Swiss banks abroad have "long adhered to an unwritten code similar to that observed by doctors or priests ". Banking in Switzerland has historically played, and still continues to play, a dominant role in the Swiss economy and society. In Switzerland lost much credibility as a banking centre after the collapse of Credit Suisse , one of the largest Swiss banks, subsequently acquired by its Swiss competitor UBS , and due to the inept way the affair was handled by the Swiss National Bank.
Bank secrecy in the Swiss region can be traced [ 7 ] to the Great Council of Geneva , which outlawed the disclosure of information about the European upper class in This is what the Swiss bourgeoisie are thinking: "That's our future.
