He said this would hurt all stakeholders and the national economy as a whole unless ways were found to compensate for undermining this competitive advantage. Under Swiss bank secrecy laws, which date back to the 1930s, tax authorities cannot ask banks to provide information on tax evasion, which is not a crime here. Banks can be forced to turn over records in tax fraud probes, however. Last year the laws were modified to require banks to report to authorities any accounts which they suspect could be tied to money laundering. The Swiss governemnt has said in the past that it was considering changing the stamp tax, but any revenues lost would have to be made up elsewhere.
Banks say the stamp tax drives business offshore and hurts Switzerland as a financial centre.
Last November the finance ministry said it planned to address the problem by imposing a transaction fee on foreign banks and stock brokers trading on the Swiss bourse to put them on the same footing as Swiss participants.