Swiss won’t assist in stolen bank data cases

(Swissinfo): The government of Switzerland has adopted a new ordinance setting out when it will or will not cooperate with other countries requesting assistance in cases of suspected tax crime. In a statement on Wednesday, the government said that requests for administrative assistance would be rejected if they are “based on information which was obtained or forwarded due to actions which are punishable under Swiss law”. Recently, there have been cases of client data stolen from Swiss banks or Swiss branches of foreign banks which were offered to, and in some cases bought by, the authorities in European countries including Germany and France.

The ordinance also forbids assistance to governments in cases of fishing expeditions (where tax authorities trawl for data on the off-chance of uncovering evasion or fraud).