Switzerland: A Parasite Feeding on Poor African and Third World Countries?

For more than half a century the Alpine nation of Switzerland has built a reputation as the world´s centre for tax evasion, fraud accounting, money laundering, racketeering, save haven and above all a staunch ally of corrupt third world leaders and a great beneficiary of third world corruption. For more than 70 years various categories of persons including Popes, presidents, prime ministers, corrupt dictators, wealthy business men, and drug dealers have all used and benefited from the banking secrecy laws of Switzerland. As a result her economy has been described in various terms as underground economy, deposit box for dirty money and dirt-driven economy.

Over the last couple of years countries such as United States, Germany and France have argued that they have become victims of Swiss illegal financial activities and as result have stepped up their campaign to get Swiss authorities to cooperate in fighting tax evasion and money laundering. The campaign has even brought a row between the German Finance Minister and members of Swiss parliament. These nations claim they are loosing billions of dollars annually through tax evasion and other illegal financial activities. In 2009 a action by the US Justice Department against the Swiss Banking giant UBS earned the United States close to $1 billion. In 2001, the United States learnt that the Swiss had protected the bank that handled finances for Osama Bin Laden. One of them, the Bahrain International Bank, had funds transiting through non-published accounts of Clearstream, which has been qualified as a "bank of banks" and was involved in one of Luxembourg's major financial scandals.

Western governments have argued that dirty money in many forms welcomed by the Switzerland allows the proceeds of corruption, drug trafficking, racketeering and terrorism to tag alongside and deny the world´s poor the chance to escape poverty. Swiss banks are reputed to be holding an estimated 35% of the world's private and institutional funds (or 3 trillion Swiss francs)".

However, of all the victims of Swiss banking secrecy laws and her shady banking practices, developing countries and Africa in particular seem to have suffered the most. The global infrastructure of international financial secrecy with headquarters in Switzerland has helped bleed trillions of dollars in illicitly generated money out of Africa and the rest of the developing world. The activities of Swiss banking institutions and real estate companies have plunged third world nations into debts, poverty, misery, malnutrition, diseases, economic meltdown, infrastructure decay and political instabilities through the help they give to corrupt politicians, civil servants, the business elite and corrupt multinational corporations who collude and connive with the corrupt entities to loot and hide the proceeds of their ill-gotton gains.

Many third world countries especially those in Africa lack the infrastructures needed to run successful economies. They lack schools, hospitals, roads, harbours, rail infrastructure, irrigation facilities, electricity, clean water, telecommunication, sanitation facilities because of the loots. Many children are orphaned and malnourished and many do not have access to education and healthcare because money meant for all that are stolen and are sitting in Swiss banks such UBS, Credit Suisse. There has not been a single corrupt politician or dictator in Africa, Latin America and Asia who has not had dealings with this secretive alpine country. While third world countries continue to struggle to provide the basic necessities of life Swiss economy is washed with money could save millions from hunger, starvation and diseases.

Every year since the year 2000 developing countries receive about $100-billion in aid annually from rich countries with about $10-billion going to Africa but these rich countries headed by Switzerland receive about $900- billion from these poor countries ($150-billion from Africa) in the form of tax evasion, embezzlement, fraud accounting debt servicing and corruption. The World Bank´s Stolen Asset Recovery initiative estimates the cross-border flow of proceeds from criminal activities, corruption and tax evasion at between $1 trillion and $1.6 trillion per year, about half of which come from developing and transitional economies.

Global Financial Integrity agrees with World Bank and says, "$900-billion is secreted each year from underdeveloped economies, with an estimated $11.5 trillion currently stashed in havens. More than one quarter of these hubs belong to the UK, while Switzerland washes one-third of global capital flight".

The Africa Union says 25 percent of the GDP of African States is lost to corruption every year amounting to more than $150-billion a year. The negative impact of that has been increasing the cost of goods by as much as 20%, deterring investment, holding back development and preventing the people from escaping poverty. The fact as pointed out by GFI is that most of the money that denies poor countries the chance to escape poverty sits in Swiss Banks.

Over the last couple of years a number of Swiss banks have been accused of accepting money from dictators like Sani Abacha, Mobutu, Lansana Conte, Gnassingbe Eyadema, Arap Moi, Omar Bongo, Obiang Nguema, Blaise Campore, Denis Sassou Nguesso, Eduardo dos Santos, Sadam Hussein, Ferdinand Marcos, Baby Doc Duvalier, Hosni Mubarak, Yoweri Museveni, Augusto Pinochet, Gaddafi and the evil genius Ibrahim Babangida without questioning the source of their wealth.

For example Swiss economy was the main recipient and beneficiary of Sani Abacha´s $5-billion embezzlement of Nigeria´s oil money. When it was discovered that Abacha used the crook banks in this country to steal the money, Switzerland wanted to distance herself from the criminal enterprise run by her banks and benefited by her economy and her citizens. But in the end she had no choice but to repatriate over $700-million to the government of Nigeria after five years of foot dragging. The banks in Switzerland that aided, abetted and provided shelter for Abacha´s stolen money were UBS AG, Zurich; UBS AG, Geneva; Union Bancaire Privee, Geneva; Credit Suisse, Zurich ; Bank Len, Zurich; Banque Barring Brothers, Geneva; Goldman Sachs and Company, Zurich; Gothard Bank, Geneva; Citibank Zurich; Banque Nationale De Paris, Basle; FIBI Bank (Schweiz) A. G. Zurich. Only heaven knows how much of Abacha´s loot still remain in these countries.

Again the Arab daily newspapers Asharq Al-Awsat and Al-Hayat reported that former Prime Minister Dr. Iyad Allawi told them in interviews that Saddam Hussein admitted he invested stolen Iraqi money which the Iraqi Governing Council estimated at $40 billion in Switzerland, Japan and Germany, among others, under fictitious company names. Directors of those shell companies would deposit 5% in company bank accounts, and the money was effectively laundered. Swiss and French lawyers did the paperwork.

One million Iraqis died during the oil for food programme while money that could have saved them was accepted by Swiss Banks and their corrupt counterparts in Japan and Germany.

Also after 18 years of legal wrangling Switzerland agreed to let the people of Philippines receive the $700m looted by Ferdinand Marcos and kept by her crook banks. Switzerland kept $700m while children were starving to death and hospitals were closing down for lack of medicines and electricity.

Furthermore, between August 2001 and 2004, Peru recovered nearly over $180 million stolen by her former spy chief Vladimiro Montesinos from several jurisdictions including Switzerland, Cayman Islands and the United States.

In May 2007, an agreement between the governments of the United States, Switzerland and Kazakhstan allowed for the repatriation of $84 million denied the people for many years. Again it took Switzerland 12 years to return $74m of the $110m stolen by Raul Salinas to the government of Mexico. Switzerland still has in her possession the money looted by the dictator ´Baby Doc´ Duvalier 24 years after he was chased away by the poor people of Haiti.

Additionally, when Mobutu died in 1997 Swiss newspapers reported that the country may be home to at least $5-billion of Mobutu´s stolen assets. The report was also confirmed by CNN World News in September, 1997. The whole world was shocked when Swiss authorities announced that Mobutu´s stolen assets in the country totalled something just under $8m and this was after they had sold his villa for $2-million. The shock sent a chill down the spine of DR. Congo´s president. He has still not recovered and has refused to show any interest in pursuing the money.

In recent years Switzerland has repatriated some of the money her banks criminally accepted at the expense of poor nations and Swiss political leadership is using it to score cheap political point instead of being ashamed of it. Mali has received just $2.5millions out of the estimated $5-billion deposited in that country by Mali´s corrupt political leaders among them former dictator Moussa Traore. Argentina has also received $4.5million from a bribery case.

It is believed that most of the $2 billion stolen by ex- President Arap Moi's family is stashed in Switzerland and her sister countries in the Alpine region. In 2003, investigation by the international risk consultancy firm Kroll on behalf of government of Kenya into allegations of corruption on the part of Arap Moi's government revealed a trail of corrupt practices by Arap Moi, his children, members of his government and their associates with most of their 24 years of ill-gotten hiding in Switzerland, Britain, Luxembourg and the Caribbean. Credit Suisse - Zurich and Citibank- Geneva came up several times as the bank where where most of the loots are being kept. "During the beginning of December 2003, Philip Moi made his move through Zara. She left the country for Italy, from where she visited Leichtenstein and Lugano located inside the Swiss canton of Tieino. It is believed that Tieino, though a remote area, consists of over 100 banks. Zara/Rosanna Moi, Philips Italian wife, estimates Philip's worth to be USD750 million." Source: Kroll Report, 2003. http://wikileaks.org/wiki/KTM_report#Target_3

Switzerland has mounted fierce campaign to portray herself as a clean, responsible country. "A senior Swiss diplomat says Switzerland no longer deserve its reputation as a save haven for the ill-gotten gains of corrupt dictators. Speaking in Geneva Ambassador Paul Seger said the government had returned $1.6 billion (SFr1.9 billion) of stolen funds in recent years" but also admitted that "incidents such as the Marcos, Abacha or Montesinos affairs reinforce the international perception that there are still more assets to be returned". Source: Swissinfo.ch.

The fact is that Switzerland has not been able to convince anyone that they still do not hold money for Omar Bongo, Lansana Conte, Obiang Nguemaa, Denis Sassou Nguesso, Eduardo dos Santos, Blaise Campore, Gaddafi, Hosni Mubarak, Arap Moi, Gnassingbe Eyadema, Ibrahim Babaginda, Jerry Rawling all of them corrupt dictators with little to show for the billions of dollars that they received from the sale of oil, gas, gold, diamond, timber and other resources.

During the trial of the disgraced Elf executives, they claimed that they paid Omar Bongo $50 million a year for concession rights in his oil rich but economically impoverished country.The executives claimed the millions of dollars were transferred into Bongo's Swiss bank accounts. But we have not heard any comment from Switzerland regarding that money and now that Bongo is dead there is no doubt that what Democratic Republic of Congo went through will be the fate for Gabon should they make any attempt to retrieve the money. It is a common knowledge that the late Omar Bongo of Gabon, Denis Sassou Nguesso of Congo, Dos Santos of Angola, Obiang Nguema of E. Guinea like their old friends (Abacha, Mobutu and Conte) have billions of dollars stashed in Swiss Banks.

Where Swiss leaders do not get it is that their past and present actions have led millions of people who could have lived to die of poverty, malnutrition, starvation and diseases. Whereas more than 800 million Indians live in poverty and in squalor, with little access to education, health, water and sanitation, the BJP party estimated during the May 2009 election campaign that the nation has lost close to $1.4 trillion most of it stashed in foreign banks notably in Switzerland.

In 2007 Swiss federal prosecutors abandoned an investigation into suspected money laundering involving the former prime minister of Madagascar. As a result a Swiss bank will refund SFr2.8 million ($2.3 million) to Tantely Andrianarivo, a move that has "disappointed and shocked" the Madagascan government, which has demanded the money back" to be used to help millions of people languishing in poverty. Source: Swissinfo.ch.

There are a good number of experts who still believe Switzerland deserves her reputation. Richard Murphy, director of Tax Research LLP says: "The idea that Switzerland has a clean economy is a joke; it is a dirt-driven economy". Her economy is dirt-driven because her financial institutions (a vital sector of her economy) have been implicated in a number of corruption scandals involving corrupt third world leaders and their associates. In fact Switzerland can best be described as economic vampire, parasite and predator feeding on the economies of poor third world countries. The Swiss Bankers Association claims that four-fifths of the nation supports banking secrecy laws. This law is the foundation of all the corruption, embezzlement, tax evasions and all the criminal enterprises that we see in the world.

The sad thing about this parasitic behaviour is that it is supported by almost all the citizens of that country. The Swiss Bankers Association claims that four-fifths of the nation supports banking secrecy, revealing a society deeply embedded in a culture of impunity and exploitation, where the licit acts as a shield protecting the illicit in a terribly respectable manner.

But Switzerland has had it both ways with her hypocrisy and double standards. Her politicians condemn corruption in Africa and the third world while her banks make fortunes off that corruption. She claims to be a champion of democracy and development but the actions of her banks and companies like SGS, UBS have proven other wise. If there is any justice in the world her banking executives should have been put on trial by the International Criminal Court for crime against humanity because there is no difference between those who use guns to kill and those who kill millions by accepting to hide money that could be used to save them from hunger, starvation, malnutrition, diseases and provide them with medicines, water, shelter, schools and electricity?

The cost of Switzerland's collusion and connivance with the corrupt entities in Africa and the third world fall primarily on the poor people in those poor countries who are denied every opportunity to escape poverty. Many live in squalor with no access to health and sanitation facilities, water, electricity, housing and even food. Over one million people in those poor countries die of malaria, 90% of them from Africa with most of the victims being children. Millions of others also die from starvation, hunger, malnutrition, polio, mizzles, tuberculosis and six killer diseases. The crime of those who die and those who continue to suffer is that they happen to have corrupt incompetent leaders and a counterpart in Europe who is ready to protect their looted funds.

As monies meant for development are stolen and stashed in Swiss Banks, the poor are left on their own to fend for themselves with aid agencies being left to pick the pieces with them. Millions have died, millions are starving and many more are suffering as a result of the role played by Swiss banks, real estate agencies and other companies. In this 21st century such suffering cannot go on forever. Switzerland cannot continue to be a willful accomplice in crimes involving the death of millions of children and women.

It is therefore time for Switzerland to act as a responsible member of the global community,tear down her banking secrecy laws and her corrupt financial infrastructures that are responsible for the deaths. It is time for Switzerland to stop her banks from accepting looted funds from Africa and the third world that make so many face starvation, hunger and death. The banks must be called to order and should be tasked to employ due deligence in dealing with their clients especially the dictators and their associates from Africa and the third world. Finally, it is time for Switzerland to turn words of fighting corruption into action and deeds and repatriate all the stolen money to its rightful owners and stop parasiting on poor African and third world countries so they can also have the opportunity to escape poverty like most citizens of Switzerland have.

By Lord Aikins Adusei

Political Activist and Anti-Corruption Campaigner. He blogs at www.ghanapundit.blogspot.com

Poverty: Modern Day Slavery in Africa

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By Lord Aikins Adusei

Although slavery was abolished more than a hundred and forty years ago and all countries in Africa are now politically free, there is a new form of slavery in Africa today which is cruel, harsh and severe like the one which took place about five centuries ago. This new slavery is like unquenchable fire ravaging in a dense but dry forest consuming everything on its path. This new slavery which is consuming Africans and decimating them is poverty. Despite decades of independence, availability of natural resources and existence of technology to make good these rich resources, Africa is still the poorest continent on earth. Today Africa is a continent where majority of the people live on one dollar a day. Africa is a continent where people die for lack of food, potable drinking water, and against common preventable diseases. It is a continent where malnutrition abounds and few children under the age of five survive the menace of the six killer diseases. It is a continent where child mortality is high and life expectancy is low. It is a continent where people walk several miles for water and children have no access to education and medical care. It is a continent where rural life is nothing but a condemnation to poverty, misery, desperation and hopelessness. It is a place where people live in mud/thatched houses with bamboo/raffia leafs as roofing sheets.

It is a continent full of wars and armed conflicts. It is a continent where democracy and rule of law are a myth.

It is a continent full of dictators and kleptocrats; a continent where corruption is handsomely rewarded and achievement is shunned; a place where entry into public life/service is a means to acquiring wealth. From Cape Town in South Africa in the south to Tunis in Tunisia in the north the story of poverty is the same. In all these countries there is lack of financial resources and economic opportunities. There is lack of food and potable drinking water; there is lack of health, housing and accommodation facilities; there is the poverty of landlessness and employment. Access to education, health and other basic infrastructures is limited to just a few. In Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Somalia, Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso, Chad, Malawi, Mauritania, Sudan and Eritrea people lack basic food and water and are at the mercy of UN food aid. In Sierra Leone, DR Congo, Nigeria, Liberia, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea Bissau and Equatorial Guinea the people lack basic health services and 8 out of 10 of the population have never seen a dentist before. People are landless; they have no access to education, employment, housing and accommodation; they live in harsh and unforgiving political environment; they face threat of viruses and diseases such as HIV/AIDS, Ebola and malaria.

Africa today is the worst place for a child to be born or grow up due to poverty and lack of opportunities. There are many cities, towns and villages where children go to school without food or eat once a day, something unimaginable in Western societies. Due to poverty most children under five are malnourished and underweight. The children are not properly clothed or sheltered. They do not receive much attention from their parents. Due to the pervasive and extreme nature of poverty, children prematurely become adults at the age of ten sometimes even less. They take on the responsibility of adults; scavenge for food and work to bring home income to support the family. As a result absenteeism in schools are high as many students swap their education for income generating activities such as fishing, farming and hawking, an act that continue to fuel and perpetuate the poverty cycle. They suffer many abuses silently in the hands of those who employ them and many are maladjusted. In the villages and in the rural areas kids walk bare footed to school and even to church or mosque. In most rural areas students have to study with lantern because there is no electricity. In the rural areas children have no class rooms and have to study under trees. Today in Sierra Leone as in many places in Africa a child is more likely to die at birth or die before reaching the age of five. Like their children, the existence of poverty and lack of economic opportunities make parents worry about what they and their family will eat as the evening approaches. Most parents struggle to feed their children and many have to credit food in order to feed their families. Parents are frustrated when they cannot cloth their kids or pay their fees and more agitated when they cannot pay their rents and face ejection. There is nothing so humiliating and insulting than not been able to feed, cloth and provide accommodation for ones family, act which is exacerbated by the culture in Africa.

Life in an African city is a great struggle and a constant battle for both young and old. There are no safety nets like unemployment benefits, council accommodation for homeless people etc. Many workers have no savings, and those without jobs are at the mercy of their distance families, friends and love ones. Slaved to poverty and helpless, these men and women have very few options: commit suicide in their own countries, run away from their children or battle the seas to reach Europe. Many in Europe will now understand why men and women battle dangerous seas for days often without food and water to reach Spain, Malta or Italy to seek employment, something they have been denied by their slave masters in Africa. This also explains why Africans will offer their services for any type of work so far as they are paid. The disturbances that took place in Egypt, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Ivory Coast in 2008 over food shortages and price increases is jut the tip of the iceberg.

There are many things that those in the West take for granted such as undisrupted and constant supply of electricity, water, availability of jobs and affordable food, clothing and council flats. In Africa items such as cars, fridges, flat screen TV, laptops, camcorders, cameras and most electronic gadgets is a luxury. When one does not know where the evening meal is going to come from can he think about buying a TV set? That is how bad the situation is in Africa.

It is not only individuals who are poor but communities, villages, towns and cities as well. In some communities there are no schools and children have to walk several kilometres a every school day in order to attend the nearest school which may be 5 or 10 kilometres away. In some communities you can only travel once a week as the only vehicle in the village leaves and comes once a week. There is no tap water. A town or village is lucky if there is a borehole. In most communities humans and animals share the same unprotected water source. Wells and streams are polluted and because the people have no alternatives they are forced to drink it. As a result water borne diseases are rampant, and deaths from such diseases are daily occurrence.

In some communities there are no hospitals, clinics, health centres or pharmacy and patients have to travel several kilometres to nearby towns before they can receive treatment or medical help. In these communities people always pray that nothing catastrophic happens in the night as that will mean automatic death. In these communities pregnant mothers are always at risk of death as there are no ambulances, and roads are poor and vehicles are scarce. This explains why child mortality is high. In the towns and villages there are no electricity and that means no economic activity that requires electricity can survive in that environment. Farmers have no place to sell their produce as there is no market infrastructure. They therefore rely on the ‘generosity’ of market women from the cities who troop the villages to buy the products at whatever price they want. In cities where public services (utilities and amenities) are relatively available, there are always shortages of essential medicines, equipments, beds, vehicles and specialised professionals in the hospitals. It is common to find patients sleeping on bed mats on the floor of hospitals while nurses and doctors go about their normal duties. In the big cities it is common to hear news that patients have absconded from the hospitals before they are officially discharged because they are poor and cannot pay their bills. As a result patients are now detained after getting well till they pay their bills. Constant disruption of water and electricity supply is a headache for hospital officials, factories and households. It is common to find waste bins filled to the brim and tipping.

Almost all the open gutters are choked and anytime it rains flood begins to threaten the people. In these cities very few houses have their own toilet facilities as a result majority of the people rely on public toilets which are themselves very few and untidy. Some of these toilets stink so much so that one has to take a bath or shower immediately after use. Due to pressure on these few toilets they are always in poor shape. In Accra lack of toilet facilities especially along the coast have forced people to use the seashore as a place of convenience. A visit to Dutch Hotel in Nungua in the morning, afternoon or evening reveals a large army of men, women and children easing themselves not far from where this beautiful hotel is situated. In Nima, Ashaiman, Nungua and James Town all suburbs of Accra, it is common to find human excreta wrapped in polythene bags and thrown into gutters, bushes and onto the street. In the cities there is the problem of managing waste, sanitation and sewerage. All these impact negatively on the health of the people and explain why life expectancy is very low.

Shortage of accommodation means that people have to pay five times what their counterparts in the villages and towns are paying. People in the big cities always pray that rain does not fall in the evening or in the night as that will mean homeless people and hustlers will have to forfeit their sleep. In Accra, Lagos, Kano, Kampala, Nairobi and other major cities across the continent people live in the woods, sleep in metal containers, kiosks and makeshift structures and slum dwelling is very common. High unemployment in the cities fuelled by rural-urban migration has forced people onto the street. In Accra you can find hawkers of all kinds taking advantage of the ever present traffic jam to sell bread, chewing gum, ice water, apple and those who have nothing to sell engage in crime, and other social vices. A walk through the major streets of Accra, Lagos, Kumasi, Lome, Conakry, Freetown, Abidjan, Nairobi, and Kampala, Arusha, Monrovia and major cities in South Africa reveal how poverty has forced millions of people to beg for food and money. The problem is very disturbing when one looks at the disabled community. Roughly more than half of the beggars in Accra for instance are people who are disabled.

Who are the Slave Masters?

The slave masters in Africa today are the politicians, their cronies, the business elite and the well connected. Together they have hijacked and exercise full control over all the resources including land, labour, capital and revenues from all economic activities. They determine who should eat and who should not. They determine who should get a job and who should get sacked. They determine who gets a place to sell in the market and who should be kicked out. They determine who should get a contract and whose certificate should be withdrawn. They decide which roads should be constructed or resurfaced and which one should not. They determine which village or town gets connected to the national electricity grid. They determine which region or district receives funding for projects. The slave masters determine who should own which business and who should have a share in that business. You cannot get a certificate to operate a business unless you grease the palm of a politician. You cannot get a contract unless you know a politician in the ruling government. You are treated differently if you know the regional minister, the governor or the district chief executive (DCE). As far as one knows a cabinet minister he can do whatever he likes and nobody dares question him. It is always the poor and the have nots who get prosecuted and jailed while the politicians and their cronies who commit atrocious crimes against the state live in their mansions to enjoy their booty. Contractors do substandard works, collect hundreds of millions of dollars, give politicians their share and that is all. So a road whose live span is twenty years has to be resurfaced after just two years. Like the slavery of old, the politicians, their families, the businessmen and the well connected are not hurt by the storm of poverty in the continent but their slaves who make up the majority of the population do. These corrupt politicians and their associates are holding the people captive with their ill-conceived economic policies and programmes thereby giving them no chance to develop. The politicians in Africa call themselves saviour of the people and have names and titles like Junior Jesus, Servants of the Poor, but they are all lies. None of them cares for the poor but their own stomach. The people are poor because the slave masters have decided they should remain so, as monies meant for their development have been stolen and are sitting in Banks in Switzerland, Luxemburg, Jersey Island, and Britain. What will you say when people have no access to food, water, electricity; have no access to education and health facilities; cannot pay their rents and fees for their kids; have no jobs and no savings; have no access to toilet facilities and have to put up with horrible smell everyday?

I have witnessed poverty in Africa and although I did not witness the slavery in the Americas, I have learnt enough about it and I can say with confidence that the poverty in Africa today is the modern version of the slavery that took place about five centuries ago.

Switzerland to relax banking secrecy law

Source:By Abigail Townsend Telegraph

The Swiss government has bowed to international pressure and agreed to relax the stringent secrecy rules that govern its banks. In a statement ahead of Saturday’s meeting of G20 finance ministers, where offshore banking will be discussed, the government said it would adopt Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development standards and co-operate with countries investigating tax evasion.

“Banking secrecy does not protect any form of tax offence,” it added. “With the globalisation of financial markets and in particular the current financial crisis, international co-operation on tax matters has become increasingly important.”Gordon Brown welcome the move, adding that it was “important for [Switzerland] to move swiftly to implementation”.

The landmark decision comes amid growing calls for a crackdown on tax havens. There had been threats to include Switzerland on the OECD’s blacklist of uncooperative tax havens, something the world’s biggest offshore financial centre was keen to avoid.

It has also come under pressure from the US, where lawyers want UBS to hand over client details as part of an investigation into tax fraud. But while Switzerland acknowledged concerns about tax havens, it also stoutly defended banking secrecy.

Any co-operation would be on a case-by-case basis only, it said, adding: “[The Federal Council] fully endorses banking secrecy and resolutely rejects any form of automatic exchange of information. The privacy of customers will continue to be protected from unauthorised access to information concerning private assets.”

It will also continue to fight the US over the UBS case. Jean Schaffner, tax partner at Allen & Overy, said it was “a good compromise”, adding: “It is not acceptable for bigger countries to use their economic power to pressure governments into revealing confidential banking information. We don’t anticipate that these announcements will significantly impact the private banking industry.”

Austria and Luxembourg also pledged increased co-operation last week .