Switzerland is world famous for its banks and thriving economy, with a GDP higher than most Western European countries. The price of the Swiss franc (CHF) was also quite stable compared to other currencies. In 2009, the financial sector in Switzerland contributed around 11.6% to the total gross domestic product and employed almost 195,000 people (136,000 of them in the banking sector specifically), which corresponds to almost 6% of the total Swiss labor force. In addition, Swiss banks employ around 103,000 people abroad.
Today, approximately thirty-three percent of all the world's funds are held outside the home country (also known as offshore investments), held by Swiss banks and financial institutions. In 2001, Swiss banks managed a total of 2.6 trillion US dollars in net assets.
Data protection declaration of the Swiss banks
The Banking Act of 1934 made it a criminal offense for a Swiss bank to disclose information about an account holder. The Swiss bank secrecy guarantees the secrecy of the bank customers. The anonymity guaranteed by Swiss law is in its essence similar to a level of confidentiality protection between doctors and patients or lawyers and their clients.
The Swiss authorities recognize the right to secrecy as a core principle to be upheld by any democratic state. While confidentiality is guaranteed, all bank accounts are linked to an identified individual, also known as the ultimate beneficiary. It should also be noted that even the principle of banking secrecy is not absolute per se: a prosecutor or a judge has the power to issue an executive order granting the right to grant court-enforced access to bank details required for conduct an investigation are required.
However, everything changed on May 27, 2015, when Swiss authorities signed an agreement with EU officials. The latter agreement brought the banking practices of Swiss banks and financial institutions into line with common European requirements and standards, ending the data protection directive that EU-based clients of Swiss banks had been enjoying lately. According to the provision of the agreement, both parties involved, Switzerland and the member states of the European Union, will automatically exchange information on each other's bank accounts from 2018 onwards.
Asset management industry in Switzerland
Asset management is a rapidly developing business in Switzerland. In order to make sure that the Swiss financial centre does actually prosper and benefit from this development, several local banking and financial associations have developed the Asset Management Platform Switzerland. This platform fulfills the duties previously carried out by the Asset Management Initiative, which was started back in year 2012. The ultimate goal of the platform is to make Switzerland an appealing, global level destination for asset management purposes.
Asset management in Switzerland is going to be improved into one of the leading forces of the Swiss financial centre. Asset management industry is going to be recognized globally for high levels of trust and quality. The aforementioned platform is going to be used in order to develop asset management in Switzerland as strategic industry. As a result, the Swiss financial centre shall become diversified, as already existing guidelines of business will be re-introduced and industries that are receding shall be compensated for. Also, for the private client business and customer-focused investment banking, asset management is going to turn into a full-scale supporting pillar of the financial centre and Swiss economy as whole.
Swiss banks
As of beginning of year 2008, on the territory of Switzerland there are 327 incorporated and authorized banks and securities dealers. Companies on this list widely range and include the Two Big Banks as well as numerous smaller banks. Click here to view our Swiss banks catalogue.
