Federal Act on Banks and Savings Banks information
1934 Swiss law
Swiss Banking Act
Federal Assembly of Switzerland
Long title
Federal Act on Banks and Savings Banks (SR 952.0)
Territorial extent
Switzerland
Enacted by
Federal Assembly of Switzerland
Enacted
8 November 1934
Commenced
1 March 1935
Status: Current legislation
The federal law officially codified hundreds of years of banking secrecy in Switzerland. Pictured: The law was announced in front of the Three Confederates statue to the Swiss public and international community in the Federal Palace of Switzerland during a 1934 special assembly.
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The Swiss Banking Act or Federal Act on Banks and Savings Banks (German: Bankengesetz, BankG, French: Loi sur les banques, LB, Italian: Legge sulle banche, LBCR) is a Swiss federal law and act-of-parliament that operates as the supreme law governing banking in Switzerland. Although the federal law has only been amended seven times, it has been revised multiple times to limit and expand its banking secrecy provisions since its ratification. The banking secrecy provisions in the Federal Act are additionally enforced through multiple civil codes in the federal Swiss Civil Code and locally through cantonal law. In December 2017, the Swiss parliament launched a standing initiative and expressed an interest in formally embedding banking secrecy within the Swiss Federal Constitution rendering it a federally-protected constitutional right.
The law was passed by the Federal Assembly of the Swiss Confederation on February 2, 1934, through the power of the constitution's 34th and 64th articles. It was put into force on March 1, 1935. The federal law is best known for Article 47, the specifications regarding banking secrecy. Article 47 makes it a federal crime to disclose the information or activity of clients banking domestically to foreign entities, third parties, or even Swiss authorities without either a) consent or b) an accepted criminal complaint. Many Articles within the Federal Act concern themselves with banking supervision for the sole purpose of enforcing Article 47. The passage of the law (along with key court precedents expanding its meaning) makes Switzerland home to the most strict and expansive banking secrecy laws in the world.[1][2]
Switzerland has had a long, kindred history with banking, more specifically with banking secrecy, since the early 1700s. While banking secrecy has been deeply engrained in Swiss society and civil law, the Federal Act formally designated a federal criminal offense codifying banking secrecy into law. In the decades following the implementation of the law, Swiss banks were granted the right to use numbered bank accounts and protect client information through a variety of supplementary statutes. Despite significant and controversial global events straining the country's banking secrecy, its laws have been revised minimally and to little meaningful effect. Of the total seven amendments to the Federal Act, the last was passed on March 22, 2013. The Federal Act, alongside more generally Swiss culture and the banking industry, has been accused of facilitating systematic tax evasion, money laundering, and the underground economy.
^Thomasson, Emma (April 18, 2013). "Special Report: The battle for the Swiss soul". Reuters. Retrieved May 19, 2018.
^Financial Secrecy Index: Narrative Report on Switzerland (2018), p. 1
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