Swiss Finance Minister: Bank Data Sharing On The Way -Report

ZURICH--Swiss banks may have to share customer data with foreign tax authorities earlier than expected, the head of Switzerland's Department of Finance Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf says in an interview Thursday with the Neue Zuercher Zeitung.

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, or OECD, has already drafted proposals for global standards on the automatic exchange of offshore bank client data with foreign tax officials, and thus far 42 countries have declared an interest in adopting the rules, Mrs. Widmer-Schlumpf told the newspaper.

"Who would have thought a year ago that we would have had the OECD draft completed by now. Everything has gone much quicker than we thought, which means we're going to have to position ourselves quickly, especially in relation to the European Union," she said.

The Swiss Federal Council has said it will assist foreign tax authorities once a global standard on the exchange of bank data has been agreed, a move which could affect Swiss banks like UBS AG (UBS), Credit Suisse Group (CS) and Julius Baer Group AG (BAER.VX).

The OECD proposals are likely to be agreed by finance ministers of the Group of 20 industrial and developing nations when they meet this weekend, and then a detailed and final draft will be presented to the G20 in September, Mrs. Widmer-Schlumpf said.

Once a global norm for the exchange of bank client data has been agreed the Swiss cabinet will draft proposals for the Swiss parliament setting out the conditions under which it will agree to cooperate with certain countries, she said. This will probably occur in 2015.

The OECD proposals have been drawn up following pressure from countries such as the U.S. and Germany seeking to repatriate untaxed assets held in foreign bank accounts.

Newspaper website: www.nzz.ch

Zurich Bureau, Wall Street Journal; [phone]; [e-mail]

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