Germany sees need for bank secrecy

Geneva - Germany's justice minister told a Swiss newspaper that she understood the need for banking secrecy but believed states must be able to access financial data when they had legitimate suspicions that crimes were being committed.

Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger's comments, in an interview with Swiss daily Tages-Anzeiger on Saturday, appeared designed to repair strains between Germany and Switzerland that were caused by a row over tax evasion.

Relations turned cold last year when Peer Steinbrueck, finance minister in the previous German government, criticised tax havens in Switzerland and other European countries and said the Swiss were like Indians running from the cavalry in the face of a German-led crackdown.

The comments prompted one Swiss parliamentarian to compare him to a Nazi.

The neighbours signed a double-taxation agreement in March making it easier to exchange information after Switzerland watered down its bank secrecy rules under pressure from the United States and European countries.

Switzerland's partners were concerned its multi-trillion-dollar wealth management industry allowed some of their citizens to evade taxes at home.

"I have great understanding for the idea of banking secrecy," said Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, a member of the liberal Free Democrats (FDP), a party that staunchly defends privacy rights.

She said there was a danger that state authorities would use the fight against terrorism as a pretext to gather data against citizens when there was no reason.

"It's clear to me that fundamentally bank client data have nothing to do with the state," she said. "But it's equally clear that the authorities must be able to access specific customer data when there is the concrete suspicion that a particular individual has committed a crime."

She said bank data should not be made available to the authorities in a broad or random way, when there were no concrete suspicions of crime.

The European Commission is keen to agree an automatic exchange of banking data with Switzerland, which the Swiss government opposes. 

 - Reuters