This confusion is not new, I remember back in 2010 the messages from Swiss bankers about the end of bank secrecy were very confusing. Some mentioned that it was over and others that it was not, others affirmed that transparency was approaching but only for Europe and the United States. For international tax specialists, the answer was clear: it was the end of the Swiss Bank Secrecy and there was no going back. The process was not quick, it began in 2009 with the lifting of bank secrecy for exchange on demand with the US and will only reach its fullness this year, with automatic exchange. Little by little the Swiss bankers accepted the reality, despite the fact that delays in implementation did not help to clear up this confusion …

Finally, the banks’ tax residence identification rules changed and the information began to be prepared. On September 30, 2018, it will be the first exchange of financial account information with countries that have an activated relationship with Switzerland. To see which are the activated relations of each country you can do it in the following  link .

I honestly don’t think Swiss bankers had a bad intention… I think the attitude was the result of a mixture of feelings of denial, helplessness, ignorance and perhaps despair at seeing their business disappear.

The messages from bankers, trustees and company administrators in countries like Panama and the Bahamas, including Uruguay, about automatic exchange are currently confusing, and it is obvious because the implementation that in Switzerland took almost 10 years, these countries must adopt it in a few months … !!