Offshore accounts are quite the topic of discussion this week, but they’ve long been a haven for the rich and famous. Moving one’s funds to an international bank account is considered a status symbol, given how few are able to do it.
One country’s financial system stands higher than any other, though. It’s the country James Bond banks in, and a country whose banking policies are a closely guarded, tight-lipped shroud of mystery and intrigue.
Everyone the whole world over knows: if you want to hide your money away, you open a Swiss bank account.
Reach for the Moon with Thousand Dollar Bills
It’s estimated one-third of all worldwide funds held in offshore accounts are kept in Switzerland. Swiss banks are known to manage roughly US$2.7 trillion.
A trillion is an unfathomably large number to comprehend. To try and put it into perspective, imagine you had many $1000 bills and even more spare time — if you decided to stack the notes on top of each other, you could create piles thus high:
- 1 million dollars = 4 inches high
- 1 billion dollars = 364 feet high
- 1 trillion dollars = 63 miles high
It can’t be easy to keep such staggering wealth hidden, so how does Switzerland manage it?
The Law of Banking Secrecy in Switzerland
Switzerland made their private banking laws formal in 1934 with the Federal Act on Banks and Savings Banks. The Act made it a criminal offense for a Swiss bank to reveal the name of an account holder. But this was not the beginning of Swiss banking secrecy; the Act merely enforced a tradition that dates back to the middle ages.
Swiss banking secrecy laws can be found as early as 1713 when The Grand Council of Geneva established regulations that required bankers to keep a registry of all their clients but prohibited the sharing of information with anyone except the client.
Under protections afforded by Swiss law, a Swiss bank and its customers share a confidentiality similar to that between doctors and patients or lawyers and their clients.
Swiss Warmongering and Profiteering
During the early days of modern Europe, Swiss mercenaries were notable for their service in foreign armies, particularly those of France. The Swiss were veterans of the Hundred Years’ War and were considered the most elite fighting force at the time. The Vatican’s Swiss Guard is a remnant of this legacy.
When the Swiss came home from their war travels, they needed a place to store their profits, and it was these funds that aided the creation of Swiss banks.
Due to the nature of the source of the money, i.e. warmongering, mercenaries required a discreet banking system to keep their pennies safe. By offering such a service, the Swiss banks attracted the custom of the returning soldiers.
There are many old banks in Switzerland dating from this era. Wegelin & Co., established in 1741, was the oldest bank in Switzerland until 2013 when it restructured. But Hentsch & Cie and Lombard Odier, both founded in 1796, are still open for business.
The Famous Swiss Neutrality
These old and established banks in Switzerland have been aided by Swiss neutrality and a national sovereignty long recognized by foreign nations. The stability fostered an environment in which the banking sector was able to develop and thrive.
Switzerland maintained neutrality through both World Wars and is not a member of the European Union, nor was it a member of the United Nations until 2002, allowing the banks to operate without any outside interference.
The Questionable Past of Swiss Banking
The Swiss are very proud of their history of secretive banking, and rightly so. Though it has led to aspersions being cast by the rest of the world.
Most famous were the inquiries made into the conduct of Swiss banks during the Nazi Germany period, especially regarding funds allegedly stolen from victims of the Holocaust. The Volcker Commission was tasked with investigating the actions of Swiss banks during the second world war but found “no proof of systematic destruction of records of victim accounts, organized discrimination against the accounts of victims of Nazi persecution, or concerted efforts to divert the funds of victims of Nazi persecution to improper purposes.” However, it also “confirmed evidence of questionable and deceitful actions by some individual banks in the handling of accounts of victims.”
The Questionable Present of Swiss Banking
Other European countries had long complained banking secrecy provisions in countries such as Austria, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, and Switzerland encouraged tax evasion by their citizens. The issue was addressed at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the G20. As a result, nearly every country agreed to treaties that would insist on the exchange of banking information in cases of suspected tax evasion.
Outside of Europe, the 2001 USA PATRIOT Act also targeted banking secrecy, as the U.S. sought to punish terrorists around the world by following their money trails. The Act created many new rules in an attempt to defeat bank secrecy, including a list of offshore banks that U.S. banks were not allowed to wire money to.
After much pressure from other nations, Switzerland eventually signed an international agreement in May 2015. The agreement aligns Swiss bank practices with those of other countries and, in effect, ends the special secrecy that clients of Swiss banks had previously enjoyed.
The Questionable Future of Swiss Banking
As a result of tax avoidance and terrorist hunts, many of the privileges Swiss banking customers had are being rescinded.
But are these legitimate reasons to pull down the shroud of such a long-standing notion of banking secrecy? Should governments be allowed access to anyone’s financial information, any time they choose? How many innocent customers are victimized in the pursuit of a few criminals?
It seems unlikely that the Swiss will forego such a tradition so easily, and the Panama Leak shows how clandestine offshore banking is still very much a thing… for now.
Comments
Fascinating insights into Switzerland’s secret banking! Your blog unveils the mysteries behind its financial system with clarity. Well done!
Excellent article, Johhny! Especially the ‘historical’ WW II info. Almost nobody in today’s generational quandary comprehend the magnitude of what really happened during these ‘World Wars’. It’s not really their fault. It’s the curse of the communist infiltrated agenda based school systems who intentionally redact , interpolate, and even censor factual historic records. And, of course, the ‘private’ religious schools who’ve been hiding the truth of the ages by brainwashing you from cradle to the grave, But History-if accurately and honestly recorded and you dig deep enough–is where you find that ‘the truth, indeed, is out there’.
The very early Swiss Banking system likely had its foundation in the success of the Knights Templar organization as it escaped potential genocide after Friday Oct. 13th around 1307. The Knights were so rich from all their looting of the Temple Mound area in the holy land which contained priceless religious treasures in underground tunnels including evidence of the ‘holy grail’ ,and payments from what amounted to a Holy Land tourism industry and mercenary security protection for anyone who paid enough in gold and silver during the crusades. Afterward they settled in France and loaned money to the King & Friends who were broke (even back then wars were expensive) and instead of paying them back with interest the King (under advice from the Church) decided to just sweep down and cancel his debt by force against the Templar hierarchy and leadership. (that’s where why Friday the 13th is bad luck came from, in case you didn’t know that) .
It was not unlike one of these psycho SWAT raids we have now where the King had his coordinated strike teams swoop down on the private residences of the wealthy Knights in the early dawn and break in forcefully with a ‘No-Knock-Warrant’. But nobody who accrued that amount of wealth back then from the business of warfare would be so stupid as to be completely lax in their security, even though they did get quite used to the ‘good life’ of the decadent French style socialism, most had enough early warning to get to their private fleet of ships and escape with most of their treasures. Their ship’s sails had the large Red Maltese Cross, (Like the explorer Christopher Columbus had on his ships) which was the logo on the Templar’s crests, as well. (Catholic Church influence). No one knows for absolute certainty if they went directly to Switzerland and got established in world Banking or diverted along the way to fall back and regroup. But there’s a lot of very interesting information out there that follows up on that which goes into all the nefarious integrations of secret societies and the affiliations of various power elite factions from those early days of the Knights Templars.
By the way, Banks, including Swiss or Bahamian banks, have been thoroughly compromised by now with government infiltration. They are no longer dedicated to protecting your privacy. Not even from the IRS. If you owe them fifty cents they can get the bank to instantly freeze your account, or extract most of your funds with no questions asked by the bank, and no notification to you, until after the fact! The ‘Eye’ can can make one phone call anytime and can say one phrase and they’ll instantly send them all your banking activity and records. This same goes for the speciously portrayed security concerns of credit reporting bureaus. One call/letter from the ‘eye’ or any of these so-called ‘National Security Alphabet agencies’ and your entire credit history is graciously given to them. On top of that they have an active ‘in-house’ snitching program (might even be a law?) in the form of SAR (suspicious activity reports) that mandates the recording and government reporting of any monies deposited or withdrawn over a certain amount, which someone told me they keep ‘lowering’ to eventually help feed A.I. Back door algorithm spying on Everyone’s finances. All this destruction of our privacy, courtesy of those two dastardly duos of government atrocities known as the War on Drugs, and the War on Terrorism.
There’s not much privacy left -especially in financial matters– at all at this point. To even slow them down a little for common things like real estate and other assets you have to veil automatic surveillance with corporate shielding, trust set ups, and other expensive maneuvers that are only delays, if ‘They’ want you bad enough and focused enough. There might be a few off shore ‘storage’ facilities where they advertise you can safely and anonymously stash your precious Art and gold, but if you can’t trust your own government not to invade and seize your private assets, how can you trust one of these Banana Peel countries for that matter, either?
The last one on the chopping block of Privacy freedom is your cash stash under your mattress or in that fake can of beans way back in your pantry. Once they kill that , it’s pretty much over for us all. Imagine knowing everything you buy , own, and do with every single dime of ALL your money.? I can’t. But unfortunately it’s already in the works. Nancy Pelosi has a bill all written up to ban cash. and go to universal digital currency (which of course would never get passed under the current Senate and Trump, but certainly would under a leftist socialist administration).
Some might say that’s okay, because with blockchain and encrypted wallets, it would be MORE secure for your privacy than current banking? Well, sorry, but no. Again, history shows that the big daddy ‘G’ can do whatever they want when they want it if there’s not enough of the ‘people’ to protest it politically. They get away with everything mostly when nobody is looking. Some ‘investigators’ think that Bitcoin was actually invented by the ‘G’ and thrown out to the ‘private’ public as a Beta test. My research goes along with that. Currently 10% of the Pop uses a form of it. within the next five years, 50% of us will be using it simply because it will become more convenient, like, or better than credit cards, to use. And they’ll feel safe because they will be assured that their ‘ecrypted crypto-currency is safer than banks or credit cards, and we can still use cash for very ‘private’ transactions?
Until it isn’t and until we can’t anymore. What if the new Leftist Communist Andministration passes a law that only Government ‘digital currency’ is LEGAL Tender along with the Banning of All Cash Transactions? That’s essentially what’s in Pelosi’s bill. Now what?
Any way, I’m also a pro-active privacy activist. And I’m in agreement with experts who say that any erosion of privacy has grave consequences on our personal and herd psychology. It’s human nature to enjoy privacy, so I’m with you on that. Keep up the good Work, Johhny. I’m also a writer of articles on these topics. I’m a forensic historian and futurist . I warned of this China Virus a couple of years ago in an Article “How To Prep For Facing The Next Deadly Plague Outbreak’ By Mahatma Muhjesbude , for Survivopedia .com I’ve written under a lot of pseudonyms for various publications over the years. I Think there’s another one relative to privacy called “We Know Where You Live” on that website that I wrote that you might be interested in?
Keep up the good work , the more people that are informed about how quickly our rights to privacy are becoming extinct, the better chance we have to reverse it it before it’s too late. Most just don’t ‘see’ what’s happening because of all the mind control and brainwashing. They must become “Woke” as they say. I’ll leave you with a famous person’s past thoughts on the matter…
“It’s not that people don’t know SO much, it’s just that SO much of what people think they know…just ain’t SO!” –Mark Twain