The Alpine federation's 'seven-headed president' has thrown its collective support behind a parliamentary initiative entitled "the sale of bank client data will be severely punished". The aim of the initiative is to improve client data protection.

The Alpine federation's 'seven-headed president' has thrown its collective support behind a parliamentary initiative entitled "the sale of bank client data will be severely punished". The aim of the initiative is to improve client data protection.

The Economic Affairs and Taxation Committee of the National Council (EATC-N) considers it unsatisfactory that people who pass on client data stolen from a financial institution or use it for their own benefit cannot be prosecuted. It thus recommends closing the existing loophole for the entire financial sector. It also wants to impose more severe penalties on whoever derives economic benefit from 'violating banking secrecy' – a phrase reminiscent of the country's recent past in which it openly made a virtue out of furtiveness – or other professionally confidential information in the financial sector.

The Federal Council supports the proposals of the EATC-N, the Economic Affairs and Taxation Committee of the National Council. The emphasis is on “improving the protection of clients’ personal rights and strengthen their confidence in the Swiss financial centre” and thereby ultimately on improvements to the competitiveness of Switzerland as a whole.

The seven heads of state argued on their website that this initiative will not fly in the face of recent proclamations of openness: “The proposed legislative changes will not be rendered superfluous by the introduction of the automatic exchange of information (AEOI) because it cannot be assumed that all countries will conclude an agreement on the AEOI with Switzerland. In addition, the relationship between the client and the financial institution in Switzerland will not be affected by the AEIO.”