Swiss banks don’t want to deal with dirty money

In 2018 Swiss banking secrecy for foreign clients will be a thing of the past. Parliament has endorsed the legal basis for the automatic exchange of information (AEI) of banking clients’ private data. “Switzerland changed its strategy just in time to actively participate in drafting the international standard for the exchange,” expert Aymo Brunetti told swissinfo.ch.  Brunetti is a professor of economic policy and regional economy at the University of Bern. He headed two expert groups on the strategic repositioning of the Swiss finance industry and has led the government’s advisory committee on the future of the Swiss finance industry since March 2015.  swissinfo.ch: Only three years ago it was considered a sacrilege to even think about automatic exchange of information. Now parliament has adopted it, and nobody has bat an eyelid. What has happened?  Aymo Brunetti: The international environment has changed drastically. It started with the financial crisis, which in ...