What makes Swiss Bank Accounts safe and secure?

Recently, discussions about Swiss Bank Accounts came into prominence in Indian media further to the revelation that Indian nationals have a whopping 1456 billion US dollars in Swiss Bank accounts. This means Indians have more money in Swiss Bank Accounts than the rest of the world combined. Leaving aside this story, let’s concentrate on Swiss Bank Accounts and what makes them safe and secure.

In many novels and films, we have seen intriguing stories associated with Swiss Bank Accounts, like in Bourne Identity, Da Vinci Code etc. Even though most of these actually don’t happen in a Swiss Bank Account, lots of people consider Switzerland to be a place where they can keep their money safe and secure. There are a few factors that make it so.

The Banking Act of 1934 was passed in Switzerland to prevent Swiss Banks from divulging depositor information to other countries during world war period, with which those countries tried to confiscate the assets owned by the customers of Swiss Banks, especially the Jews, in the name of “the good of state”. But then the Act stayed on and provided enough privacy to depositors of Swiss Bank Accounts.

Switzerland is a very stable country and it maintains a policy of neutrality with other countries. It maintained neutrality in both World Wars, is not a member of the European Union and was not even a member of the United Nations until 2002. That’s why many of the world organizations have their headquarters in Switzerland. Thus the country doesn’t have a need to succumb to pressures from international treaties and obligations. All these make its economy robust and the banking system highly stable.

Also, Switzerland is a tax haven for depositors of other countries. For nonresident depositors of Switzerland there are no taxes if they don’t reside in EU or don’t invest in Swiss companies, making it a promising place to put their money in.