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Swiss bank secrecy has protected funds deposited in Swiss banks for over 300 years.

Genevan bankers were the French king's bankers, and the first known text on bank secrecy dates back to 1713. Louis XVI even had a Swiss banker, Jacques Necker, as director general of French finances.

Until 1934, bank secrecy was covered by various provisions in the Swiss civil code and the labor code. Federal court jurisprudence fixed bank secrecy firmly in actual practice, so that a client who fell victim to violation of bank secrecy could henceforth obtain damages from the bank.

The federal law on banking passed in 1934 clearly stated that bank secrecy fell within the criminal domain. A banker who infringed bank secrecy was henceforth punishable by imprisonment, thus reinforcing the depositor's protection of the private sphere.

There are two reasons why this protection was reinforced:

• Nazi spies
  The 1931 crisis led to intensified foreign exchange control in Germany. Hitler promulgated a law whereby any German with foreign capital was to be punished by death, and the Gestapo began espionage on Swiss banks. When three Germans were put to death, the Swiss government was convinced of the necessity to reinforce bank secrecy.
   
• Pressure from the French
  In 1932, the Basler Handelsbank affair revealed that over 2,000 members of the French elite had accounts in Switzerland. French Leftists took advantage of this to denounce the austerity program of the Herriot government. It called for legal authority over French accounts in Switzerland, but to no avail.

In 1984, the people of Switzerland once again elected by overwhelming majority, with over 73% of voters in favor of maintaining bank secrecy.

Other pages of interest:

Numbered accounts Swiss bank secrecy and tax evasion The legal foundations of bank secrecy Swiss bank secrecy and money laundering