Swiss regulation: The privacy vs transparency debate rages on

New data protection law and anti-money laundering proposals that impact law firms’ privacy – how is Switzerland managing to square the circle?

“If you ask a Swiss manager: what irks you most? He will say: new regulation. If you ask: what hurts you most? He would probably say: tax. It’s a pain, but it doesn’t upend the economy.” This neat summary from Daniel Daeniker, senior partner at Homburger, provides a window into how tax and regulation affect Swiss clients. Both practice areas certainly provide an ever-increasing flow of instructions for Swiss law firms. Hans Trüeb, partner at Walder Wyss, offers some context. “Regulation is boring, but it creates a lot of work,” he says. “For decades, the US bothered us with their regulation, mostly tax. The most interesting part is the Common Reporting Standard (CRS), which the US pushed in the OECD to allow for the automatic exchange of information, forcing us to abolish our unique banking secrecy. Guess who did not adopt the CRS? The US. They’ve exported their regulations for decades to support and help their industry. Now, the EU has struck back – first with taxation, and then with data protection. You now have a common data market in the EU, which provides a competitive advantage.”