EU to put Switzerland on the blacklist

A massive leak of data from the Credit Suisse bank threatens to threaten Switzerland's entire financial sector after the European Parliament's main political group yesterday raised the possibility of blacklisting the country for money laundering.

The European People's Party (EPP) has called on the EU to review its relationship with Switzerland and consider whether it should be added to the list of countries considered to be at high risk due to financial crime.

Experts told The Guardian that such a move would be disastrous for Switzerland's financial sector, which would face the same kind of scrutiny applied to transactions linked to countries such as Iran, Myanmar, Syria and North Korea.

"When the list of high-risk third world countries in the field of money laundering is reconsidered, the European Commission should consider whether to add Switzerland to the list," said Markus Feber, economic affairs coordinator at the EPP, a group representing European center-right political parties. .

The EPP made this proposal after the media, including "The Guardian", "Zidejce Zeitung", "Mond", "The New York Times" announced that a massive leak of data from Credit Suisse Bank exposed that the financial institution provided services to clients and after found that there are suspicious activities related to their finances.

The investigation, called "Swiss secrets", identified clients of the Swiss bank who were involved in torture, drug smuggling, money laundering, corruption and other serious crimes.

"Banking privacy laws must not become an excuse to facilitate money laundering and tax evasion," Ferber said, adding "clearly, Credit Suisse has a practice of turning a blind eye instead of asking hard questions."

Credit Suisse banks reject the accusations and claim that the activities exposed by the journalists mostly happened in the past and are based on "selective information taken out of context, resulting in tendentious interpretations of the bank's business behavior." The bank's legal department told "The Guardian" that individual failures from the past do not reflect current business policies, practices and culture.

Politicians and media organizations in Switzerland reacted angrily to the revelation that Swiss investigative journalists could not participate in the "Swiss Secret" investigation because of the nation's notorious bank secrecy law.

For decades, Swiss law has criminalized disclosure of banking information by financial professionals. However, in recent years it has been expanded to include people outside the financial sector, potentially including investigative journalists.