Swiss to protect bank secrets

Berne/New Delhi: In a fresh setback to India’s efforts to get details of the so called HSBC list from Switzerland, the Swiss government on Wednesday pitched for better protection of bank client data and severe penalties for those violating the banking secrecy.

Switzerland government’s apex executive body, the Federal Council, said in a statement that it supports a parliamentary initiative seeking severe punishment for those selling bank client data or benefitting from such activities.

In its pursuit to unearth the black money allegedly stashed by Indians in Swiss banks, Indian government has been seeking details for many months about over 700 accounts mentioned in a ‘HSBC list’ of suspected tax dodgers. Switzerland has been refusing to cooperate saying it was a ‘stolen list’ and its local laws do not allow any assistance in cases involving any criminality.

This list of Indians with accounts at HSBC branch in Switzerland was received by India from French government through a bilateral treaty between two countries. France had got hold of this list after data was stolen by a disgruntled HSBC employee in 2011 and those names eventually found their way to tax authorities in India.

Subsequently, India wrote to Switzerland to get further details about these accounts, as these pertained to people suspected to have taxes in India. However, repeated requests in this regard have been rejected by Switzerland on the pretext that the information was being sought on the basis of stolen data.

Advocating for better protection of bank client data, the Federal Council of Switzerland on Wednesday said it supports the proposals made by the Economic Affairs and Taxation Committee of the National Council in this regard.

The Council said the Parliamentary committee in its report “considers it unsatisfactory that people who pass on client data stolen from a financial institution or use it for their own benefit are not liable to prosecution. “It thus recommends closing the existing loophole in the entire financial market sector. It should also now be possible to impose more severe penalties on whoever procures benefit from violating banking secrecy,” it said.